DESTRUCTION OF NURSING FEMALES. 457 



We entered the Bering Sea about the latter part of July and captured 

 260 seals from 20 to 100 miles off the seal islands. 

 A large proportion of them were females nursing Jas Kmnedy p 419 

 their young, and their teats were large and full of 

 milk. 



I have observed that those killed in the North Pacific were mostly 

 females carrying their young, and were generally Jas Eier 450 . 



caught while asleep on the water. 



The same day after a chase of an hour, we were seized by the U. S. S. 

 Mohican. The total catch of seals at the time of 

 seizure was 48, and at least 20 were females, the Francis B. King-Hall, 

 majority of which were in milk. All the seals P- 333, 

 were taken from 120 to 180 miles from St. George Island. 



When in Bering Sea we are usually from 50 Andrew Laing, p. 335. 

 to 150 miles from Pribilof Islands. 



I have killed females in milk in TJnimak Pass, 

 and even out in the Pacific Ocean, 200 miles from E. N. Laivson,p. 221. 

 the land. 



In Bering Sea, where we obtained about 400 skins, males and females 

 in about equal numbers were taken. The females 



were mostly nursing cows, while the males were Jas. E. Lennan,p. 370. 

 young ones, between the ages of 2 and 5 years. 



Another fact in connection with open-sea sealing is that the great 

 majority of seals killed are females, and that a 

 great part of the females are pregnant, or in milk. 4. P. Loud, p. 39. 

 The milking females are most all killed while vis- 

 iting the feeding grouuds, which are distant 40 or GO miles, or even 

 farther from the islands. The female necessarily feeds so she can sup- 

 ply nourishment for her young, while the males during the summer 

 seldom leave the islands. This accounts for the large number of females 

 killed in Bering Sea. 



When we skinned the females that we killed in Bering Sea we would 

 find they were mothers in milk as the milk was Wm McI 461 



running out ot their teats. * * * We would 

 catch them all the way from 100 to 300 miles off the seal islands. 



We entered the sea about the middle of June and sealed around the 

 Pribilof Islands, sealing from 5 to 10 miles and 



sometimes 40 miles off the islands. I do not re- Wm. McLaughlin, p. 462. 

 member the number of seals that we got in the 

 Bering Sea, but they were mostly mother seals with their breasts full 

 of milk. 



Q. Did you ever kill any seals later in the sea- Alexander McLean, p. 

 son that were giving milk? — A. Yes, sir. 437. 



The following is an extract from my notebook during the nine days' 

 hunt in Bering Sea, from August 23 to 31, in the 



waters about 40 to 50 miles from the entrance to 3 ^ ohert R ' McManus >l K 

 Unalaska harbor, and 40 to 50 miles off Akutan 



