A CLOSE SEASON. 521 



Q. What months in the year do you think they Frank Morreau, #.468. 

 ought to be protected? — A. Well, from about the 

 middle of Juue to the 1st of October. 



Pelagic sealing in the North Pacific Oceau John Morris, p. 341. 

 should not be permitted for at least six weeks 

 after the females have given birth to their young. 



It is very important that if the fur-seal is to be preserved it must be 

 protected from indiscriminate slaughter in the 

 open sea, or it will soon be exhausted. I would Morris Moss, p. 342. 

 suggest that either schooners should not be al- 

 lowed to approach within a radius of 50 miles of the breeding grounds, 

 or else they should not be allowed to enter the sea until the female has 

 had proper time to give birth to her young, and to give it nurse until 

 such time as the young seal is able to exist without it, say the 1st day 

 of August. This is the general opinion of prominent owners of schoon- 

 ers who have given an unprejudiced opinion upon that subject. 



I think that all sealing should be stopped for a number of years, so 

 that the seal can become plenty again, for the 

 white man has almost exterminated the seal. NasUou, p. 298. 



They ought to be prohibited from killing seals in the water for a few 

 years at least, or there will not be enough left to 

 make them worth hunting. Wm - p arlcer, p. 345. 



The practice of taking seals in the water before they have given birth 

 to their young is destructive to seal life, wasteful, 

 and should be prohibited. chas - Peterson, p. 316 



From my knowledge and from conversation with other sealers, I be- 

 lieve that for the proper preservation of seal life, 

 sealing should be absolutely prohibited every two w. Roberts, p. 242. 

 or three years. 



I think pelagic sealing in the sea should be prohibited until such a 

 time as the pup may have grown to the age at 

 which it may be able to live without nurse from Wm. Short, p. 348. 

 its mother. 



Q. In your opinion is it absolutely necessary to protect the cows in 

 the Bering Sea to prevent the herd from being 

 exterminated? If so, for what months in the i8 ^ ustave Sundvall, p. 

 year ? — A. It is absolutely necessary to protect the 

 cows, in order to prevent seals being exterminated, from the 1st of July 

 up to the 1st of November. 



I do not consider it right to kill the mother seal before she has given 

 birth to her young pup; I do not think they 



should be killed until six weeks after giving birth John A. Swain, p. 351, 

 to their young. 



I think that all pelagic hunting should be stop- W. Thomas, #.485. 

 ped for a few years to give the seal a chance to 

 increase. 



