46 THE DEPONENTS AND .THEIR EXPERIENCE. 



meuts from the work of a boy to that of First Chief of "the Island. I 

 can read and write the English, Russian, and Aleut languages and I 

 can interpret them into one another. I have read a considerable 

 amount of the controversies on the Seal Question since the seals began 

 to decrease so rapidly on the rookeries and I have observed the rooke- 

 ries and their daily condition since I became First Chief in 1884, which 

 office I resigned in 1891. 



Simeon Melovidov, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am twenty- 

 five years of age, and I was born at Sitka, Alaska. I came to 

 St. Paul Island in 1857., and resided here ever 



8. Melovidov, p. 145. since. I have a practical knowledge of and am 

 familiar with the fur-seal industry as it is carried 

 on on St. Paul Island. I became an able sealer in 1879, and worked 

 at it ever since, except in the winters, when I was at school. I have 

 driven seals and skinned tliem and prepared the skins for shipment. 

 1 am at present the school teacher on St. Paul Island, and I can read 

 and write English and Russian, as well as the Aleut language. 



Robert Michaelsen, being duly sworn, deposes and saith: I reside at 

 the settlement known as Soldovoi, on Cook's 

 Robert Michaelsen, p. 232.1nlet, Alaska, and have lived in the Territory for 

 the past ten years, chiefly at settlements along the 

 coast between Sitka and Cook's Inlet. I am a miner and prospector 

 by occupation, and have never had any experience in sealing. I have 

 become well acquainted with the coast while engaged in my business 

 of prospecting, traveling along it in a canoe, and entering all bays, in- 

 lets, streams, etc., between the points above mentioned. 



Amos Mill, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I was born in Brit- 

 ish Columbia; I am about 50 years old, and now 

 Amos Mill, p. 285. reside in New Metlakahtla ; have been a hunter 

 all my life; have hunted fur-seal in canoes; my 

 lodge is on Dundas Island, and I hunt off Prince of "Wales' Island, in 

 Queen Charlotte's Sound, and Dixon's Entrance. 



N. B. Miller, an assistant in the scientific department of the United 



States Fish-Commission steamer Albatross, being 



N. B. Miller, p. 199. duly sworn, deposes and says: I visited the Beef 



rookery and Northeast Point rookery on St. Paul 



Island, Pribilofs and the Village rookery of St. George Island, Pribi- 



lofs, and took a number of photographs on each. * * * 



I have made five cruises in Alaskan waters, viz: In the year 1888, 

 along the coast from Unalaska to Middleton 

 N. B. Miller, p. 371. island; in the year 1889, through the inland pas- 

 sages of southeastern Alaska as far north as Chil- 

 koot Inlet; in the year 1890, through the Bristol Bay region and the 

 Aleutian Islands as far west as Umnak Island; in the year 1891, to the 

 Pribilof Islands in Bering Sea; and in the month of April, 1892, in 

 the Gulf of Alaska from Kadiak Island to Prince William Sound, 

 going into Cook Inlet as far as Coal Harbor. 



G. E. Miner, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am a seal hun- 

 ter by occupation; have been engaged for 

 a. H. Miner, p. 4G6. the past five years in scaling, always as hunter. 

 * * * Am at prusent hunter on the schooner 

 Henry Dennis* 



