THE COURSE. 185 



The seals appear in these waters late in April and increase in num- 

 bers until the latter part of May, and then grad- 

 ually decrease in numbers until about the 15th of m. l. Washburn, p. 488. 

 July, when they all disappear. 



The seals first appeared about the cape the last of December, and 

 the grown females all leave for the north in June; 

 but we kill some of the younger seals up to the Watitins, p. 395. 

 middle of July, and then they leave. I have not 



caught any gray pups this year, and have never hunted seals iu the 

 Bering Sea. 



Leaving the islands late in the fall or in early winter, on account of 

 the inclemency of the weather, they journey south- 

 ward through the passes of the Aleutian Archi- Daniel Webster, p. 180. 

 pelago to the coast of California, Oregon, and 



Washington, and, gradually working their way back to Bering Sea, they 

 again come up on the rookeries soon after the ice disappears from the 

 shores of the islands; and my observation leads me to believe that they 

 select, as near as possible, the places they occupied the year before. 



I first took seal off Sitka Sound during the mouth of March. Have 

 done my sealing all this year between Cape Edg- 

 cumbe and Cross Sound. P- S. Weittenhiller, p. 274. 



Seals begin to appear on the coast the latter part of December, and 

 they are almost all gone by the 10th of July. The 

 cows appear to leave for the northward earlier Charley White, p. 396. 

 than the younger ones. 



About the 1st of June the seal disappear from Billy Williams, p. 300. 

 Dixons Entrance and go north. 



The deponent resided in the Hawaiian Islands for a period of twenty 

 years during the time his firm was engaged in 

 whaling and sealing as above stated; during that c. A. Williams, p. 539. 

 time he was brought in coutact with many mas- 

 ters of vessels and other sea-faring men, who made frequent voyages 

 between the Hawaiian Islands and Puget Sound, and he learned from 

 them that during the months of November and December they occa- 

 sionally encountered schools or " pods " of seals moving from north 

 towards the lower coast ot California ; he himself in one of his voyages 

 in the month of November, saw such " pods;" and from these facts and 

 his knowledge of the habits of the seals which frequent and have their 

 home on the Pribilof Islands, he is satisfied that the herd of said 

 islands confine their migration to the waters of the American side of 

 the ocean, and that when they leave the islands they go through the 

 passes of the Aleutian Islands to the coast of southern California, and 

 thence along up the coast again to the Pribilof Islands. 



The seal all disappear off Prince of Wales Fred. Wilson, p. 301. 

 Island in June; I don't know where they go, but 

 think they go north. 



Seals first appear off Cape Flattery about the last of December, 

 The cows seem to leave first, and in July nearly 

 all of the seals have disappeared. Wispoo, p. 397. 



