PELAGIC SEALING THE SOLE CAUSE OPINIONS. 321 



Within the last five or six years seals have decreased in number very 

 fast and are becoming very shy, and it is difficult 

 to creep upon them and hit them with the spear. Siah Yuila,p.Z§S. 

 Years ago, the heads of seals along the coast 



would stick up out of the water almost as thick as the stars in the 

 heavens, but since the white man, with so many schooners, have come 

 and began to shoot and kill them with the guns they have become very 

 scarce. 



If so many white hunters keep hunting the seal Thos. Zolnoks,p. 399. 

 with shotguns as they do now, it will be but a 

 short time before they will all be gone. 



Opinions. — White sealers. 



Page 181 of The Caae. 



I have noticed a perceptible and gradual decrease in seal life for the 

 past few years and attribute it to the large num- AndrewAnd erso, h p.2n. 

 ber or vessels engaged in hunting them at sea. 



In the sea seals are much more timid and make off as fast as possi- 

 ble at the approach of a vessel, while formerly they 

 were usually quite curious, and would sport and C. R. Anderson, p. 206. 

 play about the vessel when come up with. I believe 

 this decrease and timidity is due to the indiscriminate slaughter of the 

 seals by pelagic sealers. 



Q. To what do you attribute that decrease? — Geo. Ball,p. 483. 

 A. I attribute the decrease to the indiscriminate 

 slaughter of the seals. 



I believe that the decrease in fur-seal life, which has been constant 

 of late years, is due principally to the number of j A Brad i eil v 227 

 vessels engaged in hunting them at sea. 



Seven or eight years ago, when seals were hunted almost wholly by 

 Indians with spears, a vessel hunting in the vicin- 

 ity of Cape Flattery was sure of getting several William Brennan, p. 360. 

 hundred skins in about three months, from March 

 to the end of May, but at the present time a vessel is doing well if she 

 gets a much smaller number, because the skins bring much higher prices. 

 The records of " catches " in the last three or four years will confirm any 

 person who examines them in the belief that the seals are decreasing 

 in the Pacific Ocean on the American side. I have no reason to doubt 

 that it is the same on the Russian side. At present they are bunted 

 vigorously, and with better methods than formerly. The hunters have 

 had more experience and understand their habits better, but notwith- 

 standing this the catches are decreasing off the coast. 



Seals were not nearly as numerous in 1887 as they were in 1877, and 

 it is my belief that the decrease in numbers is due 



to the hunting and killing of female seals in the Jas. L. Carthcut.p. 409. 

 water. 



21 b S 



