428 RESULTS. 



they were almost invariably those of females. There certainly was 

 not a larger proportion of males than live to the hundred skins. This 

 great slaughter of mother seals certainly means a speedy destruction 

 to seal life. 



While in Unalaska in September, 1891, awaiting transportation 

 to San Francisco, I had an opportunity to ex- 



A. W. Lavender, p. 265. am i ne personally the catch of the steam sloop 

 Challenge , which had been warned out of the sea, and was undergoing 

 repairs at the harbor named. The catch amounted to 172 skins, which 

 were all taken in Bering Sea at various distances from the seal islands, 

 and of this number only three were those of male seals, one of these 

 being an old bull, and the other two being younger males. 



In July, 1887, I captured the poaching schooner Angel Dolly while 

 she was hovering about the islands. I examined 

 J. P. Loud, p. 39. the seal skins she had on board, and about 80 per 



cent were skins of females. In 1888 or 1889 I ex- 

 amined something like 5,000 skins at Unalaska which had been taken 

 from schooners engaged in pelagic sealing in Bering Sea, and at least 

 80 to 85 per cent were skins of females. 



In 1891 the schooner J. H. Lewis was caught near the islands by the 



Russian gunboat Aleut and found to have 416 



,J[°P^ Malowansley, p, s ki us on board. I made a personal examination 

 197 (Commander Islands). q£ ^^ ^.^ ^ ^^ ^ from n() fo (J5 ^ 



cent were those of female seals. I called the attention of the English 

 commissioners, Sir George Baden-Powell and Dr. G. M. Dawson, to 

 this fact when they visited the islands in 1891, showing them the skins. 

 I opened a few bundles of the skins for their inspection and offered to 

 show all of them, but they said they were satisfied without looking at 

 any more than those already opened. I remember that a schooner 

 from Victoria was also seized at the islands about three years ago by 

 the Russian authorities with 33 skins on board, which were nearly all 

 taken from female seals. 



And (2) because I have personally inspected skins taken upon the 

 three schooners Onward, Caroline, and Thornton, 

 T. F. Morgan, p. 64. which skins taken in Bering Sea were landed in 

 Unalaska and were then personally inspected by 

 me in the month of May, 1887. The total number of skins so examined 

 by me was about 2,000, and of that number at least 80 per cent were 

 the skins of females. I have also examined the skins taken by the 

 United States revenue cutter Bush from one of the North Pacific Is- 

 lands, where they had been deposited by what is known as a poaching 

 schooner and taken to Unalaska, which numbered about 400 skins, and 

 of that 40l> skins at least 80 per cent were the skins of female seals. I 

 have also examined the skins seized from the James Hamilton Lewis in 

 the year 1891, by the Russian gunboat Aleut, numbering 410, of which 

 at least 90 per cent were the skins of female seals, and from my long 

 observation of seals and seal skins, I am able to tell the difference be- 

 tween the skin of a male and the skin of a female seal. 



I examined the skins taken from sealing vessels seized in 1887 and 



1889, over 12,000 skins, and of these at least two- 



L. a. Shepard, p. 189. thir(is or three-fourths were the skins of females. 



