DESTRUCTION OF NURSING FEMALES. 4G5 



Fully 90 per cent of all seals secured by us in the Bering Sea were 

 cows, in milk. We seldom captured a bull, one of 

 which we shot over twelve times and afterwards Wm. Short, p. 348. 

 it escaped. There are not so many seals lost in 

 the Bering Sea as there are on the coast. We caught seals all the way 

 from 50 to 250 miles from the rookeries on the Pribilof Islands. We 

 caught female seals, in milk, near the Seventy two Pass, in the Bering 

 Sea. The Seventy-two Pass is about 230 miles from the Pribilof 

 Islands. 



We caught 767 seals in Bering Sea tbat year [1884] from 30 to 150 

 miles off the seal islands. The most of them were 

 females, for the reason that they are not as cute Ja«- Sloan, p. ill. 

 and wild as the males. • 



A great many of the female seals had their breasts full of milk, which 

 would run out on the deck when we skinned them. * * *. My third 

 voyage was in 1880. I sailed from Yokohama on the Arctic, about 

 the latter part of January. We cleared under the American flag, 

 an( j # # # ^y" e entered Bering Sea about the 17th of May 



and caught about 900 seals, the most of them around the fishing banks, 

 just north of the Aleutian Islands. The majority of them were mother 

 seals. 



And the majority of seals taken in Bering Sea are cows with milk. 

 But a very few yearlings are taken, and once in a 

 while an old bull is taken. The male seal taken Fred. Smith, p. 349. 

 are between two and four years old. * * * 



I have taken female seals 80 miles off the Pribilof Islands that were 

 full of milk. 



Have killed cow seals that were full of milk Joshua Stickian<i,p. 350. 

 over 40 miles from the Pribilof Islands. 



We entered the Bering Sea in June through Seventy-two Pass and 

 caught about 100 seals, when we were ordered out 

 of the sea. They were all females that had given John A. Swain, p. 350. 

 birth to their young. 



I have never captured any cows in milk along the coast, but when in 

 the Bering Sea in 1889 I sealed off about 90 miles 

 from the seal islands and caught cows in milk John Tysuvi, p. 39i. 

 there. 



The majority of seals killed in the water are females, and all the fe- 

 males killed in Bering Sea are mothers who have 



left their pups on the rookeries and gone some Daniel Webster, p. 183. 

 distance from the islands in search of food. 



First. That 95 per cent of all the seals killed Theo. T. Williams, p. 

 in the Bering Sea are females. 493. 



The statement I made that the capture of 168,000 skins meant the 

 death of 720,000 seals needs some explanation. 



The sealing fleet begins work in the Bering Sea t. T. Williams, p. 502. 

 about June and is all back home by the end of 

 September. During this period there are but few seals in the waters 

 30 B s 



