SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE. 243 



1 think the Commander Islands seals are a different body of seals 

 altogether from those of the Pribilofs, and that the two herds never 

 mingle. I think the Commander Islands herd goes to the southward 

 and westward toward the Japanese coast. I never knew of fur-seals 

 hauling out to rest or breed at any place in the Aleutian chain, or 

 anywhere, in fact, except the well-known rookeries of the several seal 

 islands of Bering Sea. 



Charles Bryant (ibid., p. 4) : Mr. Bryant, at the time of testifying, was 

 72 years of age and had resided in Plymouth County, Massachusetts. 

 From 1840 to 1858 he had been engaged in whaling in the North 

 Pacific Ocean or Bering Sea.. During the latter portion of the time he 

 commanded a whaling vessel. In 1868 he was appointed as Special 

 Treasury Agent to go to the Pribilof Islands to investigate and to 

 report as to the habits of the fur-seal, the conditions of the islands and 

 the most advantageous plan to adopt for the government and manage- 

 ment of the same. He remained on St. Paul Island from March, 1869, 

 to September of that year. He returned July, 1870, and remained 

 until the fall of 1871. Then in April, in 1872, he again arrived on St. 

 Paul Island as Special Agent of the Treasury Department in charge 

 of the seal islands, and he spent there the sealing seasons from 1872 

 to 1877, inclusive, and three winters, namely, 1872, 1874, and 1S76, 

 since which time he has lived in retirement at Mattapoisett, Plymouth 

 county, Massachusetts. His testimony upon this point is as follows: 



The Alaska fur-seal breeds noichere except on the islands. I took par- 

 ticular care in investigating the question of what became of the seal 

 herd while absent from the islands. My inquiries were made among 

 the Alaskan Indians, half breeds, Aleuts, and fur-traders along the 

 Northwest Coast and Aleutian Islands. One man, who had been a 

 trapper for many years along the coast, stated to me that in all his 

 experience he never knew of but one ease where seals had hauled out 

 on the Pacific coast, and that was when four or five landed on Queen 

 Charlotte Island. This is the only case I ever heard of seals coming 

 ashore at any other place on the American side of the Pacific, except 

 the Pribilof Islands. These seals are migratory, leaving the islands 

 in the early winter and returning again in the spring. The Pribilof 

 herd does not mingle with the herd located on the Commander Island. 

 This 1 know from the fact that the herd goes eastward after entering 

 the Pacific Ocean, and from questioning natives and half-breeds, who 

 have resided in Kamschatka as employes of the Pussian Fur Company, 

 I learned that the Commander herd on leaving their island go south- 

 westward into the Okhotsk Sea and the waters to the southward of it 

 and winter there. This fact was further verified by whalers who find 

 them there in the early spring. 



The Alaskan seals make their home on the Pribilof Islands because 

 they need for the period they spend on land a peculiarly cool, moist, 

 and cloudy climate, with very little sunshine or heavy rains. This pe- 

 culiarity of climate is only to be found on the Pribilof and Commander 



