SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 135 



Never since the islands have been American property has there been 

 indiscriminate killing done upon them, nor has there been a desire on 

 the part of anyone connected with them to injure or damage or waste 

 seal life; on the contrary, everything has been done by the lessees, past 

 and present, and by the United States, to foster and protect it, and to 

 improve the methods of driving the seals, so that the herds might grow 

 and thrive and increase, and perpetuate themselves indefinitely. Laws, 

 rules, and regulations were made from time to time, prompted by expe- 

 rience, with a view to add to the value 1 of the property and to abolish 

 everything that was not beneficial and in strict accord with the most 

 humane principles. To this end all long drives were prohibited and 

 arrangements made by which the killing grounds have been brought 

 as near the hauling grounds as is practicable without being injurious 

 to the breeding rookeries. 



Orders were issued by which the driving is regulated in such manner 

 that no hauling grounds are molested or disturbed more than another, 

 and, being taken in rotation, the seals are allowed several days rest 

 between drives. The rules for driving are so strict, so rigidly enforced, 

 and so faithfully carried out that I hardly know how they could be 

 improved upon. 



In my opinion the cows are the only seals that go into the sea to feed 

 from the time they haul out in May till they leave the islands in Novem- 

 ber or December, and my opinion is based on the fact that the seals 

 killed in May have plenty of food in their stomachs, mostly codfish, 

 while those killed in July have no signs of anything like food in their 

 stomachs. 



Again, the males killed for food as the season advances are found to 

 be poorer and poorer, and in all cases after July their stomachs are 

 empty. I am convinced, therefore, that none but mother seals go into 

 the sea to feed during the summer months, and this accounts for the 

 sudden decrease in the herd after the sealing schooners became so 

 numerous in Bering Sea about 1884. The decrease in the number of 

 seals coming to the islands in the last three or four years became so 

 manifest to everyone acquainted with the rookeries in earlier days that 

 various theories have been advanced in an attempt to account for the 

 cause of this sudden change, and the following are some of them: First, 

 a dearth of bulls upon the breeding rookeries; second, impotency of 

 bulls, caused by overdriving while they were young bachelors, and 

 third, an epidemic among the seals. 



The "dearth of-bulls theory" has been thoroughly and impartially 

 investigated without discovering a cow of 3 years old or over on the 

 rookeries without a pup by her side at the proper time, and I am con- 

 vinced that the virgin females coming onto the rookeries for the first 

 time are the only ones to be found there without pups. 



The investigation established the additional fact that hundreds of 

 vigorous bulls were lying idle on the rookeries without cows and many 

 others had to content themselves with only one or two. 



The theory of u i m potency of the bulls through overdriving" while 

 young was also found to be untrue, and it was shown that after 1878 

 all long drives on both islands had been abolished, and instead of 

 driving seals from 6 to 12 miles, as was done in Russian times, none 

 were driven to exceed 2$ miles. 



It is also a well-known fact that none but the physically strong and 

 aggressive bulls can hold a position on the rookeries and that a weak 

 or an impotent animal has no desire to go there. 



The epidemic theory was urged very strongly in 1891, when the rook- 



