SKAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 67 



W. H. Williams, Treasury agent: 



During the season of 1891 nearly every mature female coming upon the rookeries 

 gave birth to a young seal, and there was great, abundance of males of sufficient age 

 to again go upon the breeding grounds that year, as was shown by the inability of 

 large numbers of them to secure more than one to live cows each, while quite a num- 

 ber could secure none at. all. My investigation confirms what has been so often said 

 1\ others who have reported upon this subject, and that is that the Pribilof Islands 

 are the great breeding grounds of the fur seals, and that they can be reared in great 

 numbers on said islands, and at the same time, under wise and judicious restrictions, 

 a certain number of male seals can be killed Irom year to year without injury to the 

 breeding herds, and their skins disposed of for commercial purposes, thereby building 

 up and perpetuating this great industry indefinitely, and thus adding to the wealth, 

 happiness, and comfort of the ei\ ili/ed world, while, on the other hand, if pelagic 

 hunting of this animal is to continue, and the barbarous practice of killing the 

 mother seal with her unborn young, or when she is rearing it, is to go on, it will be 

 but a very short time before the fur seal will practically become extinct and this val- 

 uable industry will pass out of existence. 



There is the testimony of twenty men who have been on the seal islands 

 for years, some of them being born and raised there, and several of them 

 having had from fifteen to twenty-five years experience, while every one 

 of them have been directly interested in the business either for the 

 Government or for the lessees, and two of them, at least, are natural- 

 ists of repute, who could not be induced under any circumstances to 

 vary from the truth and facts as they tound them. 



I have made the quotations from the "Case of the United States," as 

 it was prepared for the United States counsel before the Tribunal of 

 Arbitration, and I could quote many others to the same purpose were 

 it necessary. 



Being personally acquainted with most of the gentlemen named, and 

 knowing the truth of their several statements, I deem it quite unneces- 

 sary to add another name from the scores at hand. 



DEAD PUPS. 



Assuming then that the "dearth of bulls" theory has been disproved 

 and disposed of, we will now take up the subject of dead pups on the 

 islands, and show that until the work of the pelagic sealer in Bering 

 Sea became an industry of some importance, dead pups by the thousands, 

 or by the acre, were unheard of and unknown ; but as the pelagic sealing 

 industry nourished and grew, and the fleet of schooners multiplied and 

 doubled in numbers from year to year, the number of dead pups was 

 found to increase 011 the rookeries in the same proportion. 



That this proposition has been, and may still be, denied by the inter- 

 ested ones; that men may be found who will swear to the contrary is 

 already conceded by me, for I have met them who did it; but, in every 

 instance, they were men whose whole interest, capital, and labor were 

 engaged in the business of seal hunting, and who would follow a seal 

 wherever it went, on land or water, unless the strong hand of a power 

 superior to their own intervened to prevent them. 



Another class, in which are to be found men of the highest intelligence 

 and personal honor, argue that possibly a stampede or an epidemic, or 

 something else of which we may not be aware, is at the bottom of the 

 trouble. 



Of the latter class are the British Bering Sea Commissioners, and I 

 quote them in full : 



(L) MORTALITY OF YOUNG SEALS IN 1891. 



344. In the season of 1891 considerable numbers of dead pups were found in certain 

 places upon the rookery grounds or in their vicinity and various hypotheses were 

 advanced to account for this unusual mortality. As some of these have special 

 bearings on the general question of seal preservation, it may be well to devote a few 

 words to this particular subject. 



