278 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



befall of milk. L Lave caught seals of this kind 1(d) to 150 miles from 

 Pribilof Islands. It is my opinion that spears should be used in hunt- 

 ing' seals, and if they are to be kept from extermination the shotgun 

 should be discarded. 



Peter Collins, also engaged in sealing as a sailor, testified as to the 

 manner of shooting the seals (ibid., p. 413. Fully three-fourths of the 

 seals shot in the North Pacific, he says, were females with young. He 

 swears that he has seen mothers with their breasts full of milk killed 100 

 miles or more from the seal islands. He knows that they go great dis- 

 tances for food. His testimony is that of a practical man who evidently 

 entertained no prejudice on the subject of killing the mothers with 

 breasts full of milk. He was apprehensive, however, that his business 

 would be destroyed. He says: 



There were not nearly as many seals to be found in 1889 as there 

 were in 1888. I think the decrease was caused by the great destruction 

 of females killed in the sea by the hunters, and if something is not done 

 to protect them from slaughter in the North Pacific and Behring Sea, 

 they will all be gone in a few years. 



Capt. Coulson (ibid., pp. 414-410), of the United States Revenue 

 Marine, makes a very interesting deposition. His experience was 

 practical and extensive. He says : 



In company with Special Agent Murray, Capt. Hooper, and Engineer 

 Brerton, of the Corwin, I visited the reef and Gobatch rookeries, St. 

 Paul Island, in August, 1801, and saw one of the most pitiable sights 

 that I have ever witnessed. Thousands of dead and dying pups were 

 scattered over the rookeries, while the shores were lined with emaciated, 

 hungry little fellows, with their eyes turned toward the sea, uttering 

 plaintive cries for their mothers, winch were destined never to return. 

 Numbers of them were opened, their stomachs examined, and the fact 

 revealed that starvation was the cause of death, no organic disease 

 being apparent. 



The great number of seals taken by hunters in 1891 was to the west- 

 ward and northwestward of St. Paul Island, and the largest number 

 of dead found that year in rookeries situated on the west side of the 

 island. This fact alone goes a great way, in my opinion, to confirm the 

 theory that the loss of the mothers was the cause of mortality among 

 the young. 



After the mother seals have given birth to their young on the islands, 

 they go to the water to feed and bathe, and / have observed them, not 

 only around the island but from so to too miles out at sea. 



In different years the feeding grounds or the location where the 

 greater number of seals are taken by poachers seem to differ; in other 

 words, the seals frequently change feeding grounds. For instance, in 

 1887, the greatest number of seals were taken by poachers between 

 Unamak, Akatan Passes and the seal islands, and to the southwest- 

 ward of St. George Island. In 1889, the catching was largely done to 

 the southward and eastward, in many cases from 50 to 150 miles dis- 

 tant from the seal islands. In the season of 1890, to the southward 



