Part 51 (2/2)
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 sh.o.r.es.
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, diminis.h.i.+ng 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 j.a.panese vessels are frequently transgressors, the j.a.panese claiming that they are not bound by the regulations of the Paris Tribunal. Both British and American sealers have been known to fly the j.a.panese flag when engaged in pelagic sealing in forbidden waters. Trouble of a serious nature with j.a.pan 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 pa.s.sion, 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 l.u.s.t 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 ma.s.ses 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 sh.o.r.e 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 b.l.o.o.d.y tufts of hair; and by-standers are said to have been horribly pelted by eyeb.a.l.l.s 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 surpa.s.sed 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.
CHAPTER XL
Authorities differ as to the proper boundaries of Bristol Bay, but it may be said to be the vast indentation of Behring Sea lying east of a line drawn from Unimak Island to the mouth of the Kuskokwim River; or, possibly, from Scotch Cap to Cape Newenham would be better. The commercial salmon fisheries of this district are on the Ugas.h.i.+k, Egegak, Naknek, Kvichak, Nus.h.a.gak, and Wood rivers and the sea-waters leading to them.
Nus.h.a.gak Bay is about fifteen miles long and ten wide. It is exceedingly shallow, and is obstructed by sand-bars and shoals. The Redoubt-Alexandra was established at the mouth of the river in 1834 by Kolmakoff.
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