304 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



hide off you could see the milk running from the breasts of the seals. 

 The second year they were more fortunate and got over 1,300 skins; 

 some of them were cows with pups in them, and almost all of the rest 

 were cows giving milk, and some of the latter were killed as far from 

 the rookeries as Unimak Pass. 



William Fraser (page 42G),of San Francisco, had made three trips to 

 the North Pacific and Bering Sea within the last six years. His busi- 

 ness was that of a laborer; he acted as a boat-puller. They used shot- 

 guns and killed about 300 seals in the North Pacific. Most of the 

 females killed had unborn pups or were cows giving milk. The next 

 trip that he made was on the Vanderbilt. They did not enter the 

 Bering Sea on that trip either. They got about 350 seals, almost all 

 females. Finally he made a trip on the G. G. White, but does not know 

 if he was on the American side or not. They killed about GOO seals on 

 that trip, nearly all females. He noticed when they skinned them that 

 they were females in milk, as the milk would run from their breasts on 

 to the deck. 



John Fyfe (ibid., p. 429), of San Francisco, a sealer and boat-puller on 

 the schooner Alexander, McLean, master. They entered Bering Sea 

 about April and got 795 in there, the largest part of which were mother 

 seals in milk. When they were skinning them the milk would run on 

 the deck. Some were killed 50 to 100 miles off the seal islands. When 

 they shot the seals dead they would sink and they could not get them. 



Thomas Gibson (ibid., p. 431) had been engaged in sealing for ten 

 years. He gives his experience in detail and thenumber of seals that he 

 killed in each season. He says : 



I did not pay much attention to the sex of seals we killed in the 

 North Pacific, but know that a great many of them were cows that had 

 pups in them, and we killed most of them while they were asleep on the 

 water. I know that fully 75 percent of those we caught in the Bering 

 Sea were cows in milk. We used rifles and shot guns and shot them 

 when feeding or asleep on the water. An experienced hunter, like 

 myself, Avill get two out of three that he kills, but an ordinary hunter 

 would not get more than one out of every three or four that he kills. 



Arthur Griffin (ibid., p. 325), a seafaring man who resides at Victoria, 

 British Columbia, sailed from that place on February 11, 18S9, as a 

 boat-puller on the sealing schooner Ariel, Buckman, master. She 

 carried six hunting boats and one stern boat and had a white crew 

 who used shotguns or rifles in hunting seals. They began sealing off 

 the northern coast of California and followed the sealing herd north- 

 ward, capturing about 700 seals in the North Pacific Ocean, two-thirds 



