144 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



do not believe it is possible to calculate even approximately the number 

 of seals upon the rookeries because of the broken nature of the ground 

 and the irregular outlines of the breeding grounds. While I was on 

 the islands I attended nearly every drive of the bachelor seals from the 

 hauling grounds to the killing grounds, and these drives were conducted 

 by the natives with great care, and no seals were killed by overdriving, 

 plenty of time being always given them to rest and cool off. A few 

 were smothered by the seals climbing over each other when wet; but 

 the number was very inconsiderable, being a fraction of 1 per cent of 

 those driven, and did not to any extent affect the seal life on the islands. 

 The greatest care was always taken to avoid overdriving both by the 

 Government officers and employees of the lessees. 



During my experience (and I was on the killing ground at every kill- 

 ing that took place while I was on the islands) I never saw a male seal 

 which had been injured by b^ing redriven several times from the same 

 hauling ground. I am convinced that while I was there there was not 

 a single case in which the virility of a male seal was destroyed or 

 impaired in the slightest degree by driving, redriving, or overdriving, 

 and I took particular notice of the condition of the males during each 

 drive. The males old enough for service on the breeding grounds were 

 always allowed to return to the hauling ground from a drive, and I am 

 satisfied a sufficient number of males was always reserved for future 

 breeding purposes. A suggestion was made to the Secretary of the 

 Treasury in the fall of 1885 that some old bulls should be killed, but 

 the Secretary declined to permit such animals to be destroyed. I am 

 convinced that the decrease in the rookeries was caused entirely by open- 

 sea sealing. As I was not present on the islands in the fall of 1885, I 

 am unable to make a statement as to the number of dead pups on the 

 rookeries in that year, but in 1886 I saw a large number of dead pups 

 lying about. These pups were very much emaciated, and evidently had 

 been starved to death. I account for this by the killing of the mothers 

 by open sea sealers before the pups were weaned, and because a mother 

 will not suckle any pup except her own. 



In 1887 the number of dead pups was much larger than in 1886. In 

 1888 there was a less number than in 1887 or in 1889, owing, as I believe, 

 to a decrease of seals killed in Bering Sea that year, but in 1889 the 

 increase again showed itself. I believe the number of dead pups 

 increased in about the same ratio as the number of seals taken in Bering 

 Sea by pelagic sealers. While I was on the island there were not more 

 than three or four raids on the rookeries to my knowledge, and I think 

 that the destruction to seal life by raiding rookeries is a small part of 

 1 per cent as compared with the numbers taken by killing in the water. 

 Another fact in connection with open- sea sealing is that the great 

 majority of seals killed are females, and that a great part of the females 

 are pregnant or in milk. The milking females are most all killed while 

 visiting the feeding grounds, which are distant 40 or 60 miles, or even 

 farther from the islands. The female necessai ily feeds so she can sup- 

 ply nourishment for her young, while the males during the summer 

 seldom leave the islands. This accounts for the large number of females 

 killed in Bering Sea. In July, 1887, I captured the poaching schooner 

 Angel Dolly while she was hovering about the islands. I examined the 

 seal skins she had on board, and about 80 per cent were skins of females. 

 In 1888 or 1889 I examined something like 5,000 skins at Unalaska 

 which had been taken from schooners engaged in pelagic sealing in 

 Bering Sea, and at least 80 to 85 per cent were skins of females. 



I have conversed with the captains of several marauding schooners 



