THE DEPONENTS AND THEIR EXPERIENCE. 51 



Minnesota. My occupation was that of a real estate and investment 

 broker. In the autumn of 1889 I went to the island of St. Paul, one 

 of the Pribilof group, as a special agent of the Treasury Department. 

 In August, 1890, I returned to the States and stayed until the spring 

 of 1891, when I returned to said island of St. Paul. I remained there 

 during the months of June and July of that year, aud was then trans- 

 ferred to the island of St. George, where I remained until June, 1892. 



In discharge of my duties as Treasury agent I made such observa- 

 tions as could be taken from the breeding rookeries and hauling 

 grounds on the islands, and in the waters immediately adjacent thereto, 

 and which enable me to make the following statement of facts; and 

 from personal observation as well as information received from the na- 

 tive inhabitants of said islands, and white men resident thereon, I 

 have formed the opinions herein expressed based upon information and 

 belief. 



Arthur Newman, a citizen of the United States of America, 51 years 

 of age, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I 

 have lived in the Aleutian Islands the greater Arthur Newman, p. 210. 

 part of the time since 1869. For eight years I 



was agent of the Alaska Commercial Company at Chernofsky, and for 

 ten years I acted in the same capacity at Umnak; for three years I 

 was an officer of a supply tender making trips between San Francisco 

 and Unalaska. I have made four trips to the westward as far as Attu 

 at different seasons of the year. 



Gustave Mebauin, having been duly sworn, deposes and says: I am 

 50 years old, a resident of San Francisco, and a 

 merchant and shipowner. I was born in Hels- Gustave Niebaum,p. 76. 

 ingfors, Finland, and became an American citizen 



by the transfer of Alaska to the United States. I entered the service 

 of the Russian American Commercial Company in 1858, and was in 

 command of one of their vessels from 1866 until the cession of Alaska 

 to the United States. I am, and have been for several years past, vice- 

 president and a director of the Alaska Commercial Company, and a 

 member of the firm of Hutchinson, Kohl & Co., the former lessees, 

 respectively, of the Alaska and Siberian sealeries. 



In these various positions the care and management of seal rookeries 

 aiid system and methods of killing seals and curing and transporting 

 their skins to market has been my study. I visited the Pribilof Islands 

 in 1867 and had charge of seal killing there in 1868 and 1869. * * * 



I have no interest whatever in the sealeries or 

 the seal-Skin trade. * * * Gustave Niehaum, p. 79. 



I was formerly a resident of that Territory. 





I was from 1880 until 1881 vice-consul of Russia at the port of San 

 Francisco. * * * 



I was instrumental in Russia in obtaining the Gustave Niehaum, p. 202. 

 lease for the last-named company and had familiarized myself with the 

 sealeries upon these islands in this connection. 



L. A. Noyes, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am a native 

 American, and my home is in Randolph, Vt. I 

 am 5U years of age, and a physician by profes- L. A. Noycs, p. 79. 

 sion. 



