In the heart of Behring Sea, about two hundred miles north of Unalaska,
lie two tiny cloud and mist haunted and wind-racked islands which are
the great slaughter-grounds of Alaska. Here, for a hundred and twenty
years, during the short seal season each year, men have literally waded
through the bloody gore of the helpless animals, which they have clubbed
to death by thousands that women may be handsomely clothed.
The surviving members of Vitus Behring's ill-starred expedition carried
back with them a large number of skins of the valuable sea-otter. From
that date--1742--until about 1770 the promyshleniki engaged in such an
unresting slaughter of the otter that it was almost exterminated.
In desperation, they turned, then, to the chase of the fur-seal, and for
years sought in vain for the rumored breeding-grounds of this pelagic
animal. The islands of St. Paul and St. George were finally discovered
in 1786, by Gerassim Pribyloff, who heard the seals barking and roaring
through the heavy fogs, and, sailing cautiously on, surprised them as
they lay in polygamous groups by the million upon the rocky shores.
Pribyloff was the son of a sailor who had accompanied Behring on the
_St. Peter_. He modestly named his priceless discovery "Subov," for the
captain and part owner of the trading association for which he worked.
He himself was not engaged in sealing, but was simply the first mate of
the sloop _St. George_. The Russians, however, renamed the islands for
their discoverer; and happily the name has endured.
St. George Island is ten miles in length by from two to four in width.
It is higher than the larger St. Paul, which lies twenty-seven miles
farther north, and rises more abruptly from the water.
The temperature of these islands is not low, rarely falling to zero; but
the wind blows at so great velocity that frequently for days at a time
the natives can only go from one place to another by crawling upon their
hands and knees.
To conserve the sealing industry, after the purchase of Alaska, the
exclusive privilege of killing seals on these islands was granted to the
Alaska Commercial Company for a period of twenty years. When this lease
expired in 1890, a new one was made out for a like period to the North
American Commercial Company, which still holds possession. The company
has agents on both islands, and the government maintains an agent and
his assistant on St. Paul Island, and an assistant on St. George, to
enforce the terms of the concession.
When the Russians first took possession of the Pribyloff Islands, they
brought several hundred Aleutians and established them upon the islands
in sod houses, where they were held under the usual slave-like
conditions of this abused people. They were miserably housed and fed,
received only the smallest wage,--from which they were compelled to
contribute to the support of the church,--and were held, against their
wishes, upon these dreary and inhospitable shores.
With the coming of the American companies all was changed. Comfortable,
clean habitations of frame were erected for them; their pay was
increased from ten to forty cents each for the removal of pelts; schools
and hospitals were provided, children being compelled to attend the
former; and the sale of intoxicating liquors was prohibited. There are
between a hundred and fifty and two hundred natives on the islands at
present.
The houses are lined with tar paper, painted white, with red roofs, and
furnished with stoves. There are streets and large storehouses, and the
village presents an attractive appearance.
As a result of good care, food, and cleanliness, the natives are able to
do twice the amount of work accomplished by the same number under the
old conditions. They are healthier, happier, and more industrious.
The value of the fur-seal catch from the time of the purchase of Alaska
to the early part of the present decade was more than thirty-five
millions of dollars. In 1903 the yearly catch, however, had dwindled
from two millions at the time of discovery to twenty-two thousands.
Indiscriminate and reckless slaughter, and particularly the pelagic
sealing carried on by poachers--it being impossible to distinguish the
males from the females at sea--have nearly exterminated the seals. They
will soon be as rare as the sea-otter, which vanished for the same
shameless reasons. In the government's lease it is provided that not
more than one hundred thousand seals shall be taken in a single year;
but of recent years the catch has fallen so far short of that number
that the annual rental, which was first set at sixty thousand dollars,
has had a sliding, diminishing scale until it has finally reached twelve
thousand dollars.
Great trouble has been experienced with pelagic sealers. Pelagic sealing
means simply following the seals on their way north and killing them in
the deep sea before they reach the breeding-grounds. There have been
American poachers, but the majority have been Canadians. The United
States government at first claimed exclusive rights to the seals, and
patrolled the waters of Behring Sea, as inland waters, frequently
seizing vessels belonging to other nations.
The matter, after much bitter feeling on both sides, was finally
submitted to the "Paris Tribunal," which did not allow our claim to
exclusive sealing rights in Behring Sea. It, however, forbade pelagic
sealing within a zone of sixty miles of the Pribyloff islands.
These waters are now patrolled by vessels of both nations; but Japanese
vessels are frequently transgressors, the Japanese claiming that they
are not bound by the regulations of the Paris Tribunal. Both British and
American sealers have been known to fly the Japanese flag when engaged
in pelagic sealing in forbidden waters. Trouble of a serious nature with
Japan may yet arise over this matter.
The habits and the life of the seal are exceedingly interesting. In many
ways these graceful creatures are startlingly human-like, particularly
in their appealing, reproachful looks when a death-dealing blow is about
to be struck. Some, it is true, yield to a violent, fighting
rage,--growing more furious as their helplessness is realized,--and at
such times the eyes flame with the green and red fire of hate and
passion, and resemble the eyes of a human being possessed with rage and
terror.
The bull seals have been called "beach-masters," "polygamists," and
"harem-lords."
These old bulls, then, are the first to return to the breeding-grounds
in the spring. They begin to "haul out" upon the rocks during the first
week in May. Each locates upon his chosen "ground," and awaits the
arrival of the females, which does not occur until the last of June.
While awaiting their arrival, incessant and terrible fighting takes
place among the bulls, frequently to the death--so stubbornly and so
ferociously does each struggle to retain the place he has selected in
which to receive the females of his harem. The older the bull the more
successful is he both in love and in war; and woe betide any young and
bold bachelor who dares to pause for but an instant and cast tempting
glances at a gay and coquettish young favorite under an old bull's
protection. There is instant battle--in which the festive bachelor
invariably goes down.
When the females arrive, a very orgy of fighting takes place. An old
bull swaggers down to the water, receives a graceful and beautiful
female, and beguiles her to his harem. If he but turn his back upon her
for an instant another bull seizes her and bears her bodily to his
harem; the first bull returns, and the fight is on--the female sometimes
being torn to pieces between them, because neither will give her up. The
bulls do not mind a small matter like that, however, there being so many
females; and it is never the desire for a special female that impels to
the fray, but the human-like lust to triumph over one who dares to set
himself up as a rival.
The old bulls take possession of the lower rocks, and these they hold
from all comers, yet fighting, fighting, fighting, till they are
frequently but half-alive masses of torn flesh and fur.
The bachelors are at last forced, foot by foot, past the harems to the
higher grounds, where they herd alone. As they are supposed to be the
only seals killed for their skin, they are forced by the drivers away
from the vicinity of the rookeries, to the higher slopes.
These graceful creatures drag themselves on shore with pitiable
awkwardness and helplessness. They proceed painfully, with a kind of
rolling movement, uttering plaintive sounds that are neither barks nor
bleats. They easily become heated to exhaustion, and pause at every
opportunity to rest. When they sink down for this purpose, they either
separate their hind flippers, or draw them both to one side.
They are driven carefully and are permitted frequent rests, as heating
ruins the fur. They usually rest and cool off, after reaching the
killing grounds, while the men are eating breakfast. By seven o'clock
the butchery begins.
The seals are still brutally clubbed to death. The killers are spattered
with blood and bloody tufts of hair; and by-standers are said to have
been horribly pelted by eyeballs bursting like bullets from the sockets,
at the force of the blows. The killers aim to stun at the first blow;
but the poor things are often literally beaten to death. In either event
a sharp stabbing-knife is instantly run to its heart, to bleed it. The
crimson life-stream gushes forth, there is a violent quivering of the
great, jelly-like bulk; then, all is still. It is no longer a living,
beautiful, pleading-eyed animal, but only a portion of some dainty
gentlewoman's cloak. I have not seen it with my own eyes, but I have
heard, in ways which make me refuse to discredit it, that sometimes the
skinning is begun before the seal is dead; that sometimes the razor-like
knife is run down the belly before it is run to the heart--not in
useless cruelty, but because of the great need of haste. The tender,
beseeching eyes, touching cries, and unavailing attempts to escape, of
the seal that is being clubbed to death, are things to remember for the
rest of one's life. Strong men, unused to the horrible sight, flee from
it, sick and tortured with the pity of it; and surely no woman who has
ever beheld it could be tempted to buy sealskin.
No effort is made to dispose of the dead bodies of the seals. They are
left where they are killed, and the stench arising therefrom is not
surpassed even in Belkoffski. It nauseates the white inhabitants of the
islands, and drifts out to sea for miles to meet and salute the visitor.
It is, however, caviar to the native nostril.