OFFICIAL REPORTS. 



report to secretary of treasury by c. l. hooper, captain 

 united states revenue marine. 



pelagic sealing. 



United States Eevenue Steamer Corwin, 



St. Paul, Koclialc Island^ Alaska, June 14, 1803. 



Hon. Secretary of the Treasury, 



Washington, D. C: 

 Sir: I have tlie honor to transmit herewith the following additional 

 notes upon i)c]a.iiic sealing, trusting that it may prove of interest to the 

 Department. The duties of the vessel, when constantly cruising, re- 

 quire so much of my time that I have been unable to make a full report 

 u])oii this subject as I had hoped to do. 



During my cruise, which began March 9 and ended May 16, I en- 

 deavored by every means at my command to give information in regard 

 to pelagic sealing, and while the time has beeu much too brief to give 

 the matter a thorough and comprehensive investigation, I have beeu 

 able to gather some facts. The affidavits of more than 200 men, more 

 or less familiar with pelagic sealing, were taken and transmitted to the 

 Department, and Avhile these affidavits differ some in different locali- 

 ties, they are in the main the same and coulirm my own 

 fiiS!'affi(iavu,s.^ ^°° observations. Among these 200 men whose statements 

 were takeu under oath, many of whom had spent their 

 life hunting fur seal, not one was found who had ever known of a fur 

 seal hauling out upcm the land or outlying rocks or 

 ^jeaisrto not land on is].^u(js upou the coast of California, Oregon, Washing- 

 ton, British Columbia, or Alaska, except upon the 

 Pribilof Islands. Neither have they ever known a fur seal to bring 

 forth its young upon the kelp or in the water or upon any of the coasts 

 mentioned, excei)t the Pribilof Islands. 



My observations of the fur seal began on the Pribilof Ishinds iii 



1809, and I have visited tlie islands since at intervals. Last year, 1801, 



I cruised during July and August in the vicinity of the islands, and 



examined the rookeries carefully from the vessel and from the shore. 



To the best of my belief there were not one-fourth ])art 



fourtimstnco'^isVo'^^'^ as many seals there last year asAvhen I first visited the 



islands in 1809 and 1870. That the fur seals both iu 



Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean are becoming less ea<*h year there 



can be no doubt, and unless the indiscriminate slaughter is stox)ped, 



they will soon become extinct iu the waters named. 



498 



