306 CAUSE. 



Opinion s — Experts. 

 Page 177 of The Case. 



I have always taken a great interest in the sealing industry, and felt 

 a great desire to have them protected from de- 

 Geo. B. Adams, p. l58.struction, and I say, without hesitation, that the 

 great decrease in the number now annually arriv- 

 ing at the seal islands is due entirely to the killing of female seals by pe- 

 lagic hunters. 



From my general knowledge of natural history, from my study of 

 the habits of seals, as well as from the opportu- 

 A. B.Alexander, j). 356. nities I have had to acquaint myself with the 

 sources of destruction which are at work, I firmly 

 believe that pelagic sealing would not only account for the diminution 

 of the seal herd, but if continued the seals will inevitably be commer- 

 cially destroyed. 



Jas. Armstrong, p. 2. I believe there has been a great decrease of seals 

 on the islands since I left there, and this is no 

 doubt due to pelagic hunting. 



My people wondered why this was so, and no one could tell why until 

 we learned that hunters in schooners were shoot- 

 Kerrick Artomanoff, p. ™S and destroying them in the sea. Then we 

 100. knew what the trouble was, for we knew the seals 



they killed and destroyed must be cows, for most 

 all the males remain on or near the islands until they go away in the 

 fall or forepart of the winter. We also noticed dead pups on the rook- 

 eries, that had been starved to death. 



If they had not killed the seals in the sea there would be as many on 

 the rookeries as there was ten years ago. There was not more than one- 

 fourth as many seals in 1891 as there was in LSSO. We understand the 

 danger there is in the seals being all killed off and that we will have no 

 way of earning our living. There is not one of us but what believes if 

 they had not killed them off by shooting them in the water there would 

 be as many seals on the island now as there was in LSSO, and we conld 

 go on forever taking 100,000 seals on the two islands; but if they get 

 less as last as they have in the last five or six years there will be none 

 left in a little while. 



Upon examining the Bering Sea catch for 1891, as based upon the 

 records of the Victoria custom house, I ascertained 

 J. Stanley Brown, p. 19. that nearly 30,000 seals had been taken by the 

 British fleet alone in Bering Sea during the sum- 

 mer of 1891. When there is added to this the catch of the American 

 vessels, the dead pups upon the rookeries, and allowances made for 

 those that are killed and not recovered, we have a catch which will not 

 only nearly reach in numbers the quota of male seals allowed to be 

 taken upon the islands in years gone by, but we have a catch in the 

 securing of which destruction has fallen most heavily upon the producing 

 females. This is borne out by a further fact. The young bachelor sea 1 s 

 can lie idly on the hauling grounds and through the peculiarities of 

 their physical economy sustain life with a small supply of food, but the 



