SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE. 279 



and westward, also to northwest and northeast of the islands, show- 

 ing that the seals have been scattered. The season of 1891, the great- 

 est number were taken to northward and westward of St. Paul, and at 

 various distances from 25 to 150 miles away. 



The testimony of such a witness, speaking of his knowledge, declar- 

 ing upon his oath that he had seen females feeding SO to 100 miles from 

 the Pribilof Islands, ought to outweigh the negative and loose state- 

 ments of any conceivable number of natives or other informants upon 

 whom the British Commissioners have relied. 



Charles Challall (ibid., p. 410), a sealer who had been sealing up the 

 coast and in Bering Sea three seasons, testified as follows : 



Most of the seals we killed up the coast were females heavy with 

 pup. I think nine out of every ten were females. At least seven out 

 of every eight seals caught in the Bering Sea were mothers in milk. 

 The vessels I went out in had from four to six boats each. Each boat 

 had three men, a hunter and two pullers. The average hunter would 

 get one out of every three that he shot; a poor hunter not nearly so 

 many. There are twenty-one buckshots to a shell. I think a great 

 many seals are wounded by hunters that are. not taken. The gunshot 

 wounds more seals than the rifle. I think the aim of the hunter is to 

 kill the seal rather than to wound it. When they are in schools sleep- 

 ing we get a good many. We did not get as many we shot at in 

 the Bering Sea as we did on the coast. If we got one out of every 

 three that we wounded in the Bering Sea we were doing pretty well. 

 I do not know of any place where the seals haul up on this coast except 

 on the seal islands. 



Mr. W. H. Dall (upon whose manuscript note, said to have been sup- 

 plied to Prof. Allen, the British Commissioners rely to show coition in 

 the water). He testifies to having seen seals in the water of Bering 

 Sea 100 miles or more from the Islands. His testimony, too, seems con- 

 clusive, if he is a reliable witness. This is his language: 



The Pribilof Islands are the chosen home of the fur-seal (Callorhinus 

 ursinus). Upon these islands they are born ; there they first learn to 

 swim, and more than half their life is spent upon them and in the 

 water adjacent thereto. Here they {live birth to their young, breed, nurse 

 their pups, and go to and from their feeding grounds, which may be miles 

 distant from the islands. I hare seen seals in the waters of Bering Sea 

 distant 100 miles or more from the islands at various times between the 

 1st of July and October. These seals were doubtless in search of food, 

 which consists, according to my observation, of fish, squid, crustaceans, 

 and even mollusks. Upon the approach of winter the seals leave their 

 homes, influenced doubtless by the severity of the climate and decrease 

 in the food supply (Appendix to Case of the United States, Vol. II, 

 p. 23). 



James Henry Douglas (ibid., p. 419), was by occupation a master 

 and pilot of vessels, and had had long experience sailing in the North 



