166 MIGRATION OP THE HERD. 



Q. When does sealing commence in the Pacific, and when does it 

 end? — A. Sealing; practically commences there in 



Geo. Ball, p. 482. January, and it practically ends between the 25th 



of June and the 5th of July. The latest I ever 

 hunted was about the 5th of July, and with very indifferent success. 



Q. When does scaling commence in the Bering Sea, and what date 

 does it end"? — A. Sealing commences in the Bering Sea about the 5th 

 of July and ends in November, with heavy weather; that is, it is ended 

 about October or the last of November by reason of the bad weather 

 not permitting any hunting of seals. 



Q. Judging by the direction that seals were traveling daring your 

 experience, where do you suppose was their destination"? — A. in the 

 fall of the year they leave their rookeries and travel to a warmer cli- 

 mate, traveling from 5 miles to 100 miles offshore. 



I have first seen and taken seal off Cape Flattery in March; have 

 Wilton C. Bomctt, p. followed tiw seal up as far as Bartlett Sound, 

 35G. which they leave about June 1. 



Edward Benson, p. 211. Have hunted seal in canoes; begin to hunt the 

 last of March and hunt till the middle of June. 



I began to take seal off Cape Flattery about March 1. Followed the 



seal north and entered Beiing Sea about July 20. 



Martin Benson, p. 405. The seal are constantly on the move up the coast 



from the time they first make their appearance off 



Cape Flattery. 



The breeding cows and full-grown bulls leave first, the old bulls per- 

 haps a month or more before the young males and 

 William Br ennan, p. 358. cows. They travel along the coast, following the 

 Japan stream on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, 

 those from the Pribilof Islands on this side, and those from the Com- 

 mander Island on the Asiatic side. On the American side, some of 

 them travel as far south as Lower California, and on the Asiatic side 

 as far south as Japan and perhaps farther. On the American coast 

 they are found as early as January off southern California, in limited 

 numbers, and are more plentiful farther north later in the season. 

 They gradually work towards the north, and about March are "bunch- 

 ing" off Grays Harbor and the Columbia River, and are found in large 

 numbers a little later about Cape Flattery and Vancouver Island. 

 They are found close inshore to 40 or 50 miles off. After June very 

 few remain along the coast. A few stragglers may be seen about that 

 time; the most of them start in earnest for the rookeries about that 

 time, in the Bering Sea. The cows are at this time heavy with young, 

 and are slow and sluggish. 



On the United States Pacific coast and Vancouvers Island, in fine 

 weather, they are fouud, as I have said, 40 or 50 

 William Br ennan, 27.360. miles offshore; but during bad weather they ap- 

 proach nearer the coast. On the Japan coast, 

 about November or earlier, depending on the weather, they are seen in 

 great numbers among the islands off theNemorogroup,"and I have also 

 seen several off Inneboi-Saki, but do not know whether they are to be 

 found off that coast in the spring or not. Steamers and schooners going 

 north keep close inshore, and in returning too far off to see seals, pro- 



