SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 151 



islands, the attempted raids increased in proportion, and it has been 

 deemed necessary to keep armed guards near the rookeries to repel such 

 attacks. Although a few of the raids were successful, and a few hun- 

 dred seals killed and carried off from time to time during the past ten 

 years, the aggregate of all the seals thus destroyed is too small to be 

 mentioned when considering the cause of the sudden decline of seal 

 life on the Pribilof Islands. 



Twenty-four years of my life have been devoted to the sealing indus- 

 try in all of its details as it is pursued upon the Pribilof Islands, and 

 it is but natural that I should become deeply interested in the subject 

 of the seal lite. My experience has been practical rather than theo- 

 retical. I have seen the herds grow and multiply under careful man- 

 agement until their numbers were millions, as was the case in 1880. 

 From 1884 to 1891 1 saw their numbers decline, under the same careful 

 management, until in the latter year there was not more than one-fourth 

 of their numbers coming to the islands. In my judgment there is but 

 one cause for that decline and the present condition of the rookeries, 

 and that is the shotgun and the rifle of the pelagic hunter, and it is my 

 opinion that if the lessees had not taken a seal on the islands for the 

 last ten years we would still find the breeding grounds in about the 

 same condition as they are to-day, so destructive to seal life are the 

 methods adopted by these hunters. I believe the number they secure 

 is small, as compared with the number they destroy. Were it males 

 only that they killed the damage would be temporary, but it is mostly 

 females that they kill in the open waters, and it is plain to anyone 

 familiar with this animal that extermination must soon follow unless 

 some restrictive measures are adopted without delay. 



The foregoing is substantially the same statement that I made to the 

 commissioners who visited the islands in 181)1. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 



PELAGIC SEALING AND PRIBILOF ROOKERIES. 



Deposition of Washington C. Coulson, United States Revenue Marine, in 



command of the Rush. 



STATE OF CALIFORNIA, 



City and County of San Francisco, ss: 



Washington C. Coulson, having been duly sworn, deposes and says: 

 I am captain in the United States Eevenue Cutter Service. At present 

 I am in command of the United States revenue cutter Rush. I was 

 attached to the United States revenue cutter TAncoln, under the com- 

 mand of Capt. C. M. Scammon, during the year 1870, from June until the 

 close of the year as a third lieutenant, and have been an officer in the 

 revenue service ever since. In the month of that year that I was in the 

 Bering Sea and at the seal islands of St. Paul and St. George. I went 

 on shore at both islands and observed the seals and seal life, the 

 method of killing, etc. I noticed particularly the great number of seal, 

 which were estimated by those competent to judge that at least 5,000,000 

 and possibly 0,000,000, were in sight on the different rookeries. To me 

 it seemed as though the hillside and hauling grounds were literally 

 alive, so great was the number of seals. At St. George Island, though 

 the seals were never in as great numbers nor were there so many haul- 

 ing places, the seals were very plentiful. At this time and for several 

 year thereafter pelagic sealing did not take place to any extent and the 



