THE COURSE. 173 



Q. What time of the year are the seals practically out of the Pacific, 

 having gone to the Bering Sea? — A. About the middle of June. 



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

 end? — A. Sealing commences in the Pacific about 

 the 1st of January and ends about the last of Wm. Henson, p. 483. 

 June. 



Q. When does sealing commence in the Bering Sea and when does it 

 end? — A. It commences in the Bering Sea about the 1st of July and 

 ends about the 1st of November. 



Q. Judging by the direction that seals were traveling in the spring 

 of the year during your experience, where do you 

 suppose was their destination ? — A. They go north Wm. Benson, p. 484. 

 during the spring of the year. 



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

 end ? — A. Sealing commences there about the 1st Andrew J. Hoffman p 

 of January and ends about the 1st of June. 446. 



Have seen and taken the first seal off the west coast of Vancouver 

 Island in April. The seals then are on the ad- 

 vance up the COast. K Hofstad,p. 260. 



In regard to the migration of the seal, from all I have learned I am 

 of the opinion that the seals upon leaving the 



Pribilof Islands, make their way to the coast of ^ L ' Hoo))er > JoLl >P- 

 California and Oregon in much less time than is 



generally supposed. The females and young leave first, commencing 

 in October. The younger males follow, and I am convinced, join and 

 remain with the females until they return to the islands, although it 

 appears that they do not haul out at the same time as the females. 

 We found the females, yearlings, and two-year-olds of both sexes to- 

 gether at all times. I have been told by seal hunters that it is no unusual 

 thing to find a young male keeping watch near a sleeping female; that 

 when but two seals are seen together one is a young male and one a 

 female, and that, if either, it is the female that is asleep. 



It is well known that many seals, especially males, remain on the 

 islands well into the winter. According to the statement of a hunter 

 who was on board at the time, the British schooner Borcalis, Hanson, 

 master, raided Southwest rookery on St. Paul Island on the night of 

 November 27, 1891, and took 480 seals, which would indicate that at 

 that time seals were still plentiful on the island. 



I visited the Pribilof Islands about January 23, 1886, in command of 

 the revenue steamer Bush, and was told that a " drive" had been made 

 the day previous to our arrival and 1,000 seals killed. Quite a large 

 number of seals were on the rookeries at that time — all males I was 

 told. We sailed on that cruise January 2 via Puget Sound ahput Jan- 

 uary 9. During the passage from Puget Sound to Unimak Pass, after 

 clearing the land we saw fur-seals nearly every day. These were prob- 

 ably some of the last to leave the islands, and were on their way to the 

 American coast in search of food and a milder climate. Those which 

 left earlier were already upon the coast. As shown by the affidavits of 

 the sealers, they begin to take seals on the coast of California in Janu- 

 ary. 



Old bulls are rarely seen south of Cross Sound, while we found them 



