PROTECTION OP FEMALES. 227 



formed that it always has been forbidden by the Russian Government. 

 AH the seals killed by me or under my superintendence, on the island, 

 have been male seals, except in the case of accident. 



Females might occasionally appear in the drove, but their presence 

 was generally known and none were killed except Jno ^ M 68> 



by accident, which occurred very rarely. 



No female is ever killed, and it is very seldom J. n. Mouiton,p. 72. 

 a female is driven. 



It is during these "food" drives in August, September, and October 

 that an occasional female is accidentally killed. 

 Being mixed with the " bachelors" at that time, l. A. Noyes,p. 83. 

 some females are driven and accidentally killed* 



The killing of a female is the greatest crime known on the seal islands, 

 and is never done intentionally. Of this I am most positive, for I 

 know that every possible precaution has been taken to guard against it; 

 and I believe there has not been one hundred females killed on St. 

 George Island since L880, if I may except some killed by poachers who 

 were driven off before they secured the skins of the seals they had killed. 



The most scrupulous care was always taken by all persons at the 

 islands, including Government agents, the Alaska 

 Commercial Company's agents, and the native r, g. Otis, p. 86. 

 chiefs and people, to spare and protect the mother 



seals, whether upon the rookeries or elsewhere on the islands; so care- 

 ful were we in that regard that whenever a female seal happened to be 

 driveu up along with a. herd of killable seals, or "bachelors," she was 

 promptly distinguished from the males, never killed, but separated from 

 the mass and allowed to make her way again to the sea. 



Statute lawforbids the killing of the female seal, and nature regulates 

 the matter so that there is no danger of their 

 being driven or killed during the regular killing J. C.Eedpath, p. 149. 

 season, which takes place in June and July when 



all the " killing for skins" is done; and after all my experience here I 

 am free to say that a small fraction of one per cent would represent 

 all the females killed on the islands since they became the property of 

 the United States. 



The compact family arrangement so tenaciously adhered to during 

 the breeding season becomes relaxed in August, and the females scat- 

 ter, and a few of them mix up with the young males, and when the natives 

 make a drive for food it occasionally happens that a female will accom- 

 pany the males, and sometimes one or two may be accidentally killed. 

 I use the word "accidentally" advisedly, because there is no good 

 reason why the natives or the lessees should kill a female seal designedly, 

 as the skin is of no nunc use or value (if so much), nor its flesh as good 

 for food, as is that of the made. And, excepting accidents, it is a fact 

 that no female seals are, or ever were, killed on the Pribilof Islands 

 since American rules and regulations were established there. 



$o females are allowed to be driven or killed, Thomas F. fiy an, $. 174. 



