REPORT OF RRITIBH COMMISSIONERS. 165 



Bay Conipiniy at Port Simpson, states that the slcins purchased there 

 are chissed by size, not according' to sex, but, so far as lie can judj;e, a 

 large part consists of young' males, with a considerable proportion of 

 grey pups. 



640. Indians hunting from Sitka, in South-eastern Alaska, often find 

 living young in females killed. These are skinned, and the skins possess 

 some little value. 



04:1. In the eastern part of the Aleutian Islands, so inconsiderable a 

 number of seals are killed in si)riug or summer, that very few gravid 

 females can be included. 



042. The following evidence on tliis particular subject is that con- 

 tained in written statements as to the various places of sealing, made 

 by some of the most experienced and intelligent pelagic sealers: 



643. William Fewings says: "It is very seldom a female is killed in 

 Behring Sea, carrying her young with her, and out of 1,000 killed on 

 the coast earlier in the season, less than one third are females carrying 

 their young." 



644. Captain J. D. Warren says : " Of the seals taken along the coast, 

 about one half are females, and of the females, not more than one half 

 are with young. In Behring- Sea, not mQre.than 1 in 100 of these 

 taken by the hunters are females with young, because as soon as the 

 females carrying their young get into the sea they go to the breeding 

 islands or rookeries, and in a few days their young are born. The cows 

 remain with their young till they are quite able to take care of them- 

 selves. I do not think that of the seals taken by Indian and White 

 hunters more than 30 per cent, are females actually breeding, or capa- 

 ble of breeding. 'Old bulls,' 'bachelors,' 'two year-old pups,' and 'bar- 

 ren cows ' make up the great majority. Cows actually breeding are very 

 watchful, and while on their voyage northward are ever on the alert, 

 so they are difficult to take. On the other hand, the other classes above 

 named make up the great class of ' sleepers,' from which fully 90 per 

 cent, of the whole catch of hunters is derived. I never saw or heard 

 of a 'cow' having her young beside her in the water, either on the coast 

 or in Behring Sea." 



645. Captain William O'Leary says: "About half the seals taken 

 along the coast are cows, and perhaps two-thirds of the cows are with 

 young. Putting a vessel's catch at 400, from 150 to 175 might be cows 

 with young. In Behring Sea the average of cows with young killed 

 will not average 1 in 100, for the reason that as soon as the cows reach the 



sea they goto the breeding islands, where their young are born." 

 Ill George Howe says : " About one-third of the seals taken on the 



coast are cows with pup, or capable of being with pup. In Beh- 

 ring Sea I got four cows with pups in them." (This was in a season's 

 catch.) 



Albert J. Bertram says: "I got during the season 320 seals. . . . 

 On the coast I got about twenty-five to thirty females with young in 

 them, and in Behring Sea I got six or seven. I never saw a cow Avitli 

 her pup alongside of her in the water." 



()40. In the sworn statements obtained by Mr. Milne, and already 

 referred to, frequent reference is made to the composition of the catch, 

 both along the coast and in Behring Sea. From these statements the 

 following abstracts have been made: 



C. J. Kelly, two years' experience in sealing, found the percentage of 

 females to be always less than that of males. 



Captain W. Petit, who seems to have paid particular attention to 

 this matter, savs that in 1891 of 765 seals killed, 18 were females carry- 



