56 THE DEPONENTS AND THEIR EXPERIENCE. 



Eliah Prokopief, a native of Amchitka Island of the Aleutian Chain, 



52 years of age, being duly sworn, deposes and 

 Eliah Prokopief, p. 215. says: Am a hunter of the sea-otter and blue fox, 



and have lived in this vicinity all my life. I hunt 

 about Attu, Aagattu, and the Seinichi Islands. Have never hunted nor 

 killed a fur-seal. 



Filaret Prokopief, a native of Attu Island, Alaska, 23 years of age, 



being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am the 



Filaret Prokopief, p. 216. agent and storekeeper at this place for the Alaska 



Commercial Company, which position I have held 



for the last two years. My occupation is that of a hunter, principally 



for the sea-otter and fox; never for the fur-seal. I used to hunt, before 



I was made agent, about the Attu, Agattu, and the Semiehi Islands. 



J. C. Redpath, being duly sworn, deposes and says : I am an Ameri- 

 can citizen, a native of Connecticut, and I am 



J. C. Keapath, p. 147. forty-eight (48) years of age. At present I am 

 a resident of St. Paul Island, Alaska. I have re- 

 sided on the seal Islands of St. George and St. Paul since my first 

 coining to Alaska in 1875. My present occupation is that of local 

 agent on St. Paul Island for the present lessees, the North American 

 Commercial Company. I have a practical knowledge of and am thor- 

 oughly conversant with the habits and conditions of the fur-seal as it 

 exists on the Pribilof Islands of St. George and St. Paul, and also of 

 the methods adopted and practiced in the taking of the skins, and of 

 the several efforts made by the former and present lessees, as experi- 

 ence taught them, to increase the herd and to build up the rookeries 

 and to perpetuate seal life. I have had a personal experience of 

 seventeen seasons on the killing grounds in different situations from 

 that of seal-clubber to foreman, several years of which I have been 

 resident local agent. My position as local agent has led me to make a 

 careful study of the seal question, and it is my duty to report from 

 time to time, to the general agent of the lessees the result of my obser- 

 vations. 



Charles W. Reed, having been duly sworn, deposes and says: I am 



53 years old, and am an American citizen, resi- 

 CharlesW. Beed, p. 472. dent of San Francisco, and by occupation a ship- 

 master and pilot, and a member of the San Fran- 

 cisco Pilot Association. Between the years 1872 and 1880 I made four 

 voyages, as master of a schooner and in charge of expeditions engaged 

 in the sealing industry, to the Galapagos Islands. * * * In the 

 first voyage I remained upon the islands about seven months, and at 

 subsequent times from three to five months at each voyage, covering 

 different seasons of the year. I have thus seen and carefully observed 

 the seals resorting to these islands at all times of the year. 



Personally appeared before me Paul Repin, who, being duly sworn, 



deposes and says : I am 57 years of age; was born 



Paul Bepim,p. 207. in Unalaska, where I have lived all my life; and 



am a native of Alaska. For many years I was a 



sea-otter and seal hunter, and for eight years in my younger days I 



made trips with the priest to Unga and other villages in the vicinity. 



I have heard the statement made by Ruth Burdukofski, and from 



my knowledge of the facts know the same to be true. 



