RESULTS. 207 



array of testimony as the foregoing" to determine Examiuation of 



'' •' ^ . <^fi*cli of vessels 



the cause of the rapid decrease in the Alaskan seized, 

 seal herd. 



But in addition to this p^reat slaughter of the Destructiou of 



^ ^ pregnant leuialcs. 



producing" sex, another waste of life is caused, as 

 already stated, through the pregnancy or mater- 

 nity of a large proportion of these female seals. 

 As long ago as 1869 Capt. C. M. Scammon, of 

 the United States Revenue Service, and author 

 of " The Marine Animals of the Northwestern 

 Coast of North America" (published in 1874), 

 observed that nearly all the seals taken by the 

 Indians near Vancouver Island were pregnant 

 females, and August 30, 1869, he addressed a 

 letter on the subject of the double slaughter 

 resulting to the Secretary of the Treasury.^ 

 Bowachup, a Makah Indian hunter, says : "I 

 never killed any full-grown cows on the coast 

 that did not have pups in them."^ Daniel 

 McLean says : '' The females are mostly all with 

 pup."^ P. S. Weittenhiller, owner of the sealing 

 schooner Clara, states that of sixty seals taken 

 this season (1892) forty-six were pregnant 

 females.* James Kiernan, a sealer, states that 



1 Vol. II, p. 474. 



2 Vol. II, p. 376. 



3 Vol. II, p. 444. 

 <Vol. II, p. 274. 



