PELAGIC SEALING THE SOLE CAUSE OPINIONS. 307 



cows must range the ocean in search of nourishment that they may- 

 meet the demands made upon them by their young. That seals go a 

 great distance from the islands I know from personal observation, for 

 we saw them 120 miles to the northward of the island on the way to 

 ISTunivak. That the females outnumber the males ten to one is well 

 known, otherwise the hauling ground would present such an array of 

 killable seal that there would be no necessity for tlie Government to 

 suspend the annual quota. It inevitably follows that the females are 

 the class most preyed upon in Bering Sea. No class of animals which 

 bring forth but a single offspring annually can long sustain itself 

 against the destruction of the producers. 



As a result of my investigations I believe that the destruction of fe- 

 males was carried to the point in about 1885 where the birth rate could 

 not keep up the necessary supply of mothers, and that the equilibrium 

 being once destroyed and the drain upon the producing class increasing 

 from year to year from that date, the present depleted condition of the 

 rookeries has resulted directly therefrom. 



When we first noticed that the seals on the rookeries were not so 

 many as they used to be we did not know what 

 was wrong, but by and by we found that plenty Karp Buterin, p. 103. 

 of schooners came into the sea and shot seals, and 

 we often found bullets and shot in seals when we were skinning them. 



And then we found plenty dead pups on the rookeries, more and more 

 every year, until last year (1891) when there were so many the rook- 

 eries were covered with them, and- when the doctor (Akerly) opened 

 some of them there was no milk or food in their stomachs. Then we 

 all knew the cows had been shot when they went into the sea to feed, 

 and the pups died because they had nothing to eat. Plenty schooners 

 came first about eight or nine years ago, and more and more every year 

 since; and the seals get less and less ever since schooners came; and 

 my people kept saying " no cows," " no cows." 



First the cows get less, and then the "bachelors" get less, and the 

 company agent he says " kill smaller seals," and we kill some whose 

 skins weigh only 4 J pounds, instead of 7 pounds, same as they always 

 got. Then we could not get enough of seals, and at last we could 

 hardly get enough for meat. 



Schooners kill cows, pups die, and seals are gone. 



The cause of this decrease I believe to be due to the promiscuous 

 killing of the seals by hunters in the open sea and 



the disturbance caused by their presence in de- Jas.H. Douglass, pAVd. 

 stroyingthe mother seals and scattering the herds. 



And I know of no other cause for the decrease than that of the kill- 

 ing of the cows at sea by the pelagic hunters, 

 which I believe must be prohibited if the Alaskan G- L. Fowler, p. 26. 

 fur-seal is to be saved from total destruction. 



In my opinion, pelagic sealing is the cause of redriving on the 

 islands, the depletion of the rookeries, and prom- 

 ises to soon make the Alaska fur-seal herd a thing Okas. J. Goff, p. 113. 

 of the past. If continued as it is to-day, even if 

 killing on the islands was absolutely forbidden, the herd will in a few 

 years be exterminated. 



