324 cause. 



I think the seals are not near as plenty as a few years ago, and they 



are much more shy and harder to cateh now than 



Jas. Hay ward, p. 328. they were when I first went out sealing. I think 



this is caused by hunting - them so much with 



guns. 



Wm. Benson, p. 481. Q. If there is a decrease, to what do you attrib- 



ute it? — A. I attribute it to the extermination by 

 inexperienced hunters. 



Seals are not as plentiful now as they were a few years ago. I think 

 they are decreasing on account of their being 

 Wm. Hermann, p. 446. nuil ted SO much. 



I have not personally noticed any decrease in the numbers of the 

 fur-seal species, but I think that the constant 

 Norman Hodgson, p. and indiscriminate slaughter of them must tend 

 367 - largely to that end. 



Q. If there is a decrease, to what do you attribute if? — A. To the 

 Andrew J. Hoffman p. amount of seal hunters and hunting that is actu- 

 447. ' ally going on. 



Seals have decreased very fast the last three years. The decrease 



T , „ . , , ._. is caused, I think, by the indiscriminate killing of 

 E. Hofstad, p. 260. , . A ± 



J ,L seals in the Mater. 



Gustave Isaacson, p. Q. To what do you attribute the cause 1 ? — A. 

 ii0 - Killing off the females; whale-killers and sharks 



kill a good many. 



Frank Johnson, p. 441. Q- To what do you attribute the cause of this 

 decrease:' — A. The increase of the Heel and kill- 

 ing of all the lemales. 



My knowledge being from long experience, is that the seals are be- 

 coming gradually scarcer in the northern waters, 

 Jas.Kiernan,p. 450. particularly so in later years. The cause of this 

 decrease I believe to be the indiscriminate slaugh- 

 ter of the mother seals. They are hunted too much, and hence mother 

 seals are becoming scarcer, which, if not checked, will lead to their 

 early extermination. 



He also told me, from his own knowledge, that the Uchuckelset In- 

 dians had a few years ago caught off the coast 

 Francis E. King-Hall, 1?600 seals in a S eason, and that now they could 



p ' catch hardly any; that the white men's guns were 



not only destroying the seals, but driving them further from the coast. 



In my opinion, fur-seal life has not only enormously decreased in 

 numbers since 1886, but it has become greatly 

 Jas.E.Lennan,p.370. scattered, and grown wilder and more timid, for- 

 saking many places where they were formerly to 

 be found at certain seasons of the year engaged in feeding. This I at- 

 tribute to the large number of vessels engaged in killing fur-seals in- 

 discriminately at sea. 



