8 THE DEPONENTS AND THEIR EXPERIENCE 



from Victoria. * * * On January 19, 1891, 1 shipped at Victoria as 

 an able seaman, and took the boat steerer's billet on the sealing schooner 

 Mascot, Lawrence, master. * * * On February 25, 1892, I shipped 

 at Victoria, British Columbia, on the sealing schooner May Belle, Smith, 

 master. 1 shipped as an able seaman, and did service in the sternboat 

 as boat steerer. 



Joseph Stanley "Brown, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am 

 36 years of age; am a citizen of the United 



J. Stanley Brown, p. 10. States; reside in Mentor, Ohio; am by profession 

 a geologist, and as such am employed in the U. 

 S. Geological Survey. 



In April, 1891, I was ordered by the honorable the Secretary of the 

 Interior, to whose direction the officers of the Geological Survey are 

 subject, to report to the honorable the Secretary of the Treasury per- 

 sonally for special service. This I did, and on the 27th of that month 

 I received from the latter a temporary appointment as special agent. 



On May 4 I was given instructions to visit the Pribilof Islands, for 

 the purpose of studying the seal life found thereon, with a view to pro- 

 curing full and accurate information, not only as to its present general 

 condition, but also more specifically as to any increase or diminution of 

 the seal herd that makes its home upon the islands. I was further 

 instructed, should 1 find that change bad occurred, to inquire carefully 

 into its relative amount and the causes leading thereto. My duties 

 were in no way connected with the administration of the islands, but I 

 was left free to make as exhaustive and comprehensive an examination 

 of seal life on the islands as the time at my disposal would permit. 



In accordance with my instructions I proceeded to San Francisco, 

 and on the 27th day of May sailed for Bering Sea on the United States 

 revenue steamer Rush. The Rush arrived at St. George Island on 

 June 9 and at St. Paul on the following day. I entered immediately 

 upon the work assigned me and continued it interruptedly until Sep- 

 tember 22, when the Rush returned to San Francisco, arriving there on 

 October 2. 



Of the one hundred and thirty days devoted to field investigation 

 eighty were given to the two islands and fifty spent at sea in making 

 the voyage to and from San Francisco and in cruising in the vicinity 

 of the Pribilof Islands. This cruising carried me as far north as the 

 island of St. Matthew and of Nunivak, and gave me an opportunity to 

 visit the villages of Akutan, Unalaska, Makuskin, Hashega, and Cher- 

 nofsky, on the Aleutian chain. Thus by field investigation, by cruising, 

 as well as by seeking information from those qualified by their calling 

 to give it, I sought to familiarize myself with the seal question in all its 

 phases. 



In the prosecution of my investigations I deemed it desirable to pho- 

 tograph all the rookeries often from two positions; to make a general 

 topographic survey of both islands on a scale of 1 mile to the inch and to 

 prepare detailed charts of the rookeries upon the unusually large scale 

 of 204 feet to the inch. In carrying out this work I examined the entire 

 shore lines of St. Paul and St. George, and there is not an area of a mile 

 square upon either that I have not traversed nor a square hundred feet 

 upon a rookery that I have not repeatedly inspected. The close atten- 

 tion to topographic forms demanded in platting rookeries with so much 

 minuteness and the care required in selecting the best positions to 

 secure photographs inevitably drew me in close contact with seal life 

 and greatly increased my opportunities to study it. There was hardly 



