PELAGIC SEALING THE SOLE CAUSE OPINIONS. 317 



Seal used to be plentiful, but now they are nearly all gone. They 

 are too much hunted by the white men with 

 schooners Jas ' ^ orackei >P- 283. 



Seal have become very scarce the last three years, and what few 

 there are are very wild and hard to get at. I 

 think the reason that seal have become scarce is Robert Kooko,p.29Q. 

 that they are hunted too much and too many 

 females killed with pup. 



Have noticed that seal are decreasing very fast the last few years. I 

 think the cause of the decrease is that there are 

 too many schooners hunting seal in Bering Sea Jno. Kowineet, p. 264. 

 and along the North Pacific coast. 



Seal are not nearly as plentiful as in former years; have noticed the 

 decrease in the last three or four years. Think 

 the cause of the decrease is the great number of Geo. Lachcek, p. 265. 

 schooners sealing in the North Pacific Ocean and 

 Bering Sea. 



Seals are not nearly so plentiful now as they used to be. About 

 seven years ago white men commenced to hunt 



seals in this vicinity with guns, since which time j a s. Lighthouse, p. 389. 

 they have been decreasing in numbers and have 

 become wild and hard to catch. * * * 



Seals are not so plentiful and are more shy than they used to be, and 

 are more difficult to catch, because they have been hunted so much for 

 the last five or six years with gnus. 



White hunters, in numbers, commenced to huut them around Cape 

 Flattery, with guns, about six years ago, and 

 since that that time the seals have decreased very Thos. Lowe, p. 371. 

 rapidly. 



Since the white man with schooners has been hunting seal they have 

 been growing scarcer every year, and unless they 

 are stopped the seal will soon be all gone. The vhas. Martin, p. 297. 

 Indians now have to go a long way and sutler 

 great hardships in order to get any. 



After careful inquiry among our oldest people and weighing my own 

 experience and observations, I believe the de- 

 crease of the Alaskan fur-seal is due altogether to s. Melovidoo, p. 147. 

 pelagic hunting. 



Since the schooners have commenced to hunt seal they arc becoming 

 very scarce and the Indians have to go a long ways 

 to get the few that they do. Matthew Morris, p. 286. 



Years ago seals were much more plentiful than they are now, and I 

 could see them all around in bunches on the water, 

 but since the white man came here and com- Moses, p. 309. 

 nienced to kill them with the rifle and the shot- 

 gun, within the last five or six years, they have rapidly decreased in 

 number. 



