SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE 305 



of which were females with pup; the balance were young seals, both 

 male and female. They entered Bering Sea on the 13th of July, 

 through the Unimak Pass and captured between 900 and 1,000 seals 

 therein, most of which were females in milk. They returned to Victoria 

 on the 31st of August, 1889. 



It will be observed here that Arthur Griffin's experience and success 

 would not lead him probably to object to the modus operandi suggested 

 by the British Commissioners. His operations by which 900 or a 1,000 

 seals, mostly females in milk, were secured in the brief space of six 

 weeks, could be carried on not only with equal propriety, but with the 

 additional advantage of being lawful. 



His experience in 1889 was not exceptional. He went out again in 

 1890 in the E. B. Marvin, McKiel, master. They again captured be- 

 tween 900 and 1,000 seals on the coast, most of which were females 

 with pups. They entered the sea on July 12 through Unimak Pass 

 and captured about 800 seals in those waters, about 90 per cent of 

 which were females in milk. His experience was that a good hunter 

 will often lose one-third of the seals he kills. A poor hunter will lose 

 two-thirds of those he shoots. On an average hunters will lose two 

 seals out of three of those they shoot. 



M. A. Healey {ibid., p. 27). Capt. Healey, an officer in the United 

 States Revenue Marine service, on duty for nearly the whole of twenty- 

 five years in the waters of the North Pacific, Bering, and Arctic seas. 

 He speaks from experience and says: 



My own observation and the information obtained from seal-hunters 

 convince me that fully 90 per cent of the seals found swimming in tne 

 Bering Sea during the breeding season are females in search of food, 

 and the slaughter results in the destruction of her young by starva- 

 tion. I firmly believe that the fur-seal industry at the Pribilof Islands 

 can be saved from destruction only by a total prohibition against kill- 

 ing seals, not only in the waters of Bering Sea, but also during their 

 annual immigration northward in the Pacific Ocean. 



This conclusion is based upon the well-known fact that the mother 

 seals are slaughtered by the thousands in the North Pacific while on 

 their way to the islands to give birth to their young, and extinction must 

 necessarily come to any species of animal where the female is continu- 

 ally hunted and killed during the period required for gestation and 

 rearing of her young; as now practiced there is no respite to the 

 female seal from the relentless pursuit of the seal-hunters, for the 

 schooners close their season with the departure of the seals from the 

 northern sea and then return home, refit immediately, and start out 

 upon a new voyage in February or March, commencing upon the coast 

 of California, Oregon, and Washington, following the seals northward 

 as the season advances into the Bering Sea. 

 14740 20 



