286 EVIDENCE OF DECREASE 



Q. Has there been any decrease in the quantity of seals as compared 

 to previous years? — A. I think there has been a 



Wm. Eenson, p. 484. decrease of seals as compared to previous years of 

 about 25 per cent or more. 



Q. Has there been any decrease in the quantity of seals, as com- 

 pared to previous years? — A. Well, for the length 

 Andrew J. Hoffman, p. Qf time that j baye be(m Qut there . g nQt much 



difference. 



447 



Gustave Isaacson, p.teO. Q. Have you noticed any decrease in the quan- 

 tity of seals in the last few years? — A. Yes, sir; 

 a great decrease. 



Seals are diminishing along the coast, and unless pelagic sealing is 

 Victor Jackobson p. stopped in the Pacific Ocean the seal will become 

 328. ' exterminated. 



Q. Have you noticed any decrease in the quantity of animals in the 

 last few years? — A. I have found a decrease. I 

 Frank Johnson, p. 441. have not been doing much sealing in the last three 

 or four years. I have been otter hunting, princi- 

 pally. 



Jack Johnson, p. 282. Seal are not nearly as plentiful on the coast as 

 in former times. 



About six years ago I noticed the seal herd began to decrease, and 

 they are getting less each year ever since the 



Seiwish Johnson, p. 388. white hunter came about here and commenced 

 killing them with guns. * * * 



They are very scarce now, and very wild and difficult to catch. 



The seals were not near as plentiful along the coast and Bering Sea 



in 1891 as they were in 1890. They wanted me to 



Jas. Kean,p. 448. ship this year on a sixth lay — that is, every sixth 



skin was to be mine — but I thought the seals were 



so scarce it would not pay me to go. It is the common conversation 



among us hunters that the seals are getting so scarce it does not pay 



for us to go and hunt them unless they will give us a better price per 



skin, and a great many of the old hunters would not go out this year 



on that account. 



In 1888 I made a fishing voyage to the Bering Sea, and while in there 



heard the captain and officers discussing about 



James Kennedy, p. 449. the decrease of seals on the islands and in the 



water. I heard it discussed on our return at the 



different ports we put in at, and also in Victoria on our arrival, and all 



said the seals were decreasing. 



I have often conversed with many other persons who, like myself, 

 were engaged in sealing, and they agreed with 

 James Eiernan, p. 451. me in the statements herein made as to the de- 

 struction and disappearance of the seals in the 

 northern waters. My view of the matter could, I have no doubt, be 

 corroborated by hundreds of persons experienced in sealing, if they be 



