EVIDENCE OF DRCREASE. Ifi? 



st;ilo tli.'it tlio s])nc('S now c(n'or(Ml by hcjiIs nro <^n Pribiioi" i.si- 

 iiuicli less in area lli;tii roniierly, and tliat a 

 markod yearly decrease is shown to liavc^ taken 

 plains duvInL;' jlic last live or six years.' Karp 

 Biiterin, native chief of the St, Paul Islanders, - 

 who has lived on the island all his life, says: 

 "Plenty schoi^ners canu^ ilrst ajjout eig'ht or 

 nine years ago and more and more every year 

 since ; and the seals get less ever since schoon- 

 ers came ; and my ])eo])le kept saying', " No 

 cows! no cows!"" Dr. William S. Hereford, who 

 was resident physician on the Pribilof Islands 

 from 1(S<S() to ISDl, inehisive, says: "It is an 

 indisputahh^ fact that large; ])ortions of the 

 breedinn- rookeries and hanlini'- lii-ounds are 

 bare;, where; but a few years ago nothing but 

 the ha|)py, noisy, and snarling- seal families 

 (iould be seen;"^ and Mr. A. P. Loud, assistant 

 Trea.sury agent on the islands tVom 1885 to 

 1889, says there was a very mai'ked decn^aso in 

 the size of tlu; })reeding grounds fi-om 1885 to 

 1889.'^ Capt. (*oulson, of tlu^ United States 

 Revenues Marine;, avIio cruised in Bering Sea in 

 1870, 181)0, and 1891, also mentions the fact 

 that the decrease in one year (1890-91) was 



' Ke])or1. of AiiKwicnii lU'riiifj Sen- CoiuiniHsiojKirs, ;)o,v/, p. lilO. 

 •^ Kiiri* liutcrin, Vol. II, p. 103; SccalsoC. L. Fo\vler,\'ol. II, [). 25. 

 3Vol.Il,|).3(). 

 < Vol. II, p. 38. 



