326 cause. 



I have given up tin sealing business because the slaughtering of the 



female seals is making them so scarce that it does 

 Jas. Maloy, p. 463, not 



I think seals are not as plentiful as they used 

 a. E. Miner, p. 466. to be, caused, I think, by the indiscriminate kill- 

 ing of females with pup. 



Q. To what do you attribute that decrease? — 

 FrannkMorreau,p.4G8. A. From the killing of seals, both by hunters and 

 others. 



Deponent further says that he thinks that the decrease in the num- 

 ber of seals found in the rookeries and the increase 



T. F. Morgan, p. 65. in the number of dead pups are caused directly by 

 the open-sea sealing commonly called poaching. 



I am not able to say whether the seal herd is decreasing, but it is 



reasonable to suppose that where they are hunted 



Nelson T. Oliver, p. 372. and harassed at all times by so many hunters 



they are sure to be driven from their usual haunts, 



if not totally destroyed. 



Seals were not as plentiful in 1886 as they were in 1885. I think the 

 principal cause of that decrease is on account of 



Mies Nelson, p. 470. killing the females in the water, and also through 

 their getting shy by being chased by the boats. 



Since the use of rifles and shotguns has be- 

 Wm. Parker, p. Si5» come common, seals are much less in numbers 

 and are more shy and timid. 



Seals are not near as plentiful as when I went out in 18S8, and I 



believe the decrease is due to their being hunted 

 Edwin P. Porter, p.Ul. &Q miich ^^ shotguns aud rifles . 



I know that the seals are rapidly decreasing, 

 Advlphus Sayers,p. 473. and I believe it is caused by killing females in the 

 water. 



I took very great interest in the seals, because I used to hunt them 



myself, and I noticed a great decrease in the num- 



Jas. Sloan, p. ill. ber of seals froin what there was formerly, when 



I was on sealing voyages. It was, in fact, so 



marked that I called the captain's attention to it, saying that we had 



seen very few seals. They have been getting scarcer every year since 



I have been going to Bering Sea, and if something is not done right 



away to protect them there will be no more seals in these waters. I 



know as a fact that they are killing them indiscriminately, and all the 



hunters care about it is to get a skin. I know something about it, as 



I have been sailing from this coast up along those waters for nineteen 



years, and, as I said before, I paid particular attention to them, and I 



firmly believe, if they allow the killing in the sea to go on as they are 



now doing, it will only be a question of a few years before there will 



not be enough to pay any one to hunt them. 



