DESTRUCTION OF NURSING FEMALES. 453 



We entered the Bering Sea through the Muckawa Pass about the 1st 

 of July, and commenced hunting seals wherever 

 we could find them, among which were a great Chas. Adair, p. 400. 

 many cows giving milk, which we killed from 30 

 to 150 miles from the islands. 



I have no exact information as to the proportion of male and female 

 seals killed by pelagic hunters, but it is my firm 

 conviction, from my knowledge of the habits of Geo. B. Adams, p. 158. 

 the males in not leaving the islands during the 



breeding season and the well-known fact that mother seals go great 

 distances in search of food while nursing their youug, that the females 

 are slaughtered in great numbers during their journeys to and from the 

 islands by pelagic hunters. 



And when in the Bering Sea we take seals from Wm. Bendt,p. 404. 

 10 to 120 miles from the seal islands. 



And the larger proportion of those killed in Bering Sea are also cows. 

 Have killed cow seal, with milk in them, G5 miles 



from the Pribilof Islands. * * * A few male Martin Benson, p. 405. 

 seal are taken, ages ranging from 1 to 5 years. 

 Once in a while we catch an old bull in the Pacific Ocean. 



We came out of the Bering Sea the latter part of August, and had 

 caught about 1,700 seals between the Pribilof Isl- 

 ands and Unalaska; we caught them from 10 to Niels Bonde, p. 315. 

 100 or more miles off St. George Island. 



The seals caught along the coast after the 1st of April are mostly 

 pregnant females, and those caught in Bering Sea 

 were females that had given birth to their young. Niels Bonde, p. 316. 

 I often noticed the milk flowing out of their breasts 



when being skinned, and have seen them killed more than 100 miles 

 from the seal islands. I have seen live pups cut out of their mothers 

 and bve around on the decks for a week. 



I was in the Bering Sea inl8S9 on the schooner James G. Sican, but 

 did not use shotguns. Most all the seals we caught 

 were cows giving milk. Bowa-clmp, p. 376. 



We entered the Bering Sea the middle of May and captured 300 

 while in there. Most of these were mother seals Thos Bradlei 406 

 with their breasts full of milk. ' " l y ' v ' 



We did not capture any gravid seals in the Bering Sea. Nearly all 

 the seals taken in Bering Sea were cows in milk. 

 We captured a few young seals in the sea of Henry Brown, p. 317. 

 both sexes. 



I hunted in Bering Sea in 1S89 (that being the only year I ever went 

 to that sea) and hunted seals with spears about 

 70 miles southwest off the islands, and our catch Peter Brown, p. 377. 

 was nearly all cows that had given birth to their 

 young and had milk in their teats. 



