162 SEAL LIFE ON THE PKIBILOF ISLANDS. 



ground, from 7f> to 85 per cent of those driven up, and gave an excellent 

 opportunity to observe the effect of driving upon large bands of seals. 

 In driving it is true that if the weather is unfavorable a few may die 

 en route, or in anticipation of their death are clubbed, skinned, and 

 their pelts added to the quota. It is also true that sometimes there are 

 manifestations of weariness and exhaustion among the driven seals; 

 that driving causes some excitement; that occasionally smothering 

 occurs, and that there are other episodes happening on and about the 

 killing field which are necessarily incident to and must always form 

 part of the killing of seals on land, and which are likely to obscure the 

 judgment of the observer or be allowed to assume undue prominence in 

 his mind. But the chief question is the potency of these episodes as 

 destructive agents. To what extent do they occur and to what extent 

 do they effect the herd at large are the points to be fairly considered ; 

 and their consideration must not be influenced by an exaggeration due 

 to the sensibilities of the observer. Care should be and is at all times 

 exercised to avoid needless waste; but after giving the greatest promi- 

 nence possible to the injurious methods which are alleged to have been 

 employed at different times since the American occupancy of the islands, 

 my observations lead me to believe that the loss of life from the causes 

 indicated above would be but a fraction of 1 per cent of the seals driven ; 

 and I also believe that it can not, with any show of justice, be made to 

 account for or play other than a very insignificant part in the diminution 

 of seal life. After my observations of two seasons I can not believe 

 that creatures which in their maturity possess sufficient vitality to live 

 for eighty or ninety days without food or water, and in which their fetal 

 life can be cut from the mother and still live for days, are as bachelor 

 seals injured in their virility or to any extent disabled physically by the 

 driving to which they are subjected on the Pribilof Islands. 



JOSEPH STANLEY-BROWN. 



DEAD PUPS. 



Deposition of J. C. 8. Akerly, surgeon United States Revenue Marine, and 

 resident surgeon on St. Paul Island. 



STATE OF CALIFORNIA, 



City and County of San Francisco, ss: 



J. C. S. Akerly, Ph. B., M. D., having been duly sworn, deposes and 

 says: I am a graduate of the University of California, 1882, and a 

 graduate of the Cooper Medical College, 1885. From June to August 

 18, 1891, I was surgeon on the revenue-marine steamer Corwin. From 

 August 18 to November 24, 1891, I was resident physician on St. Paul 

 Island, one of the Pribilof or seal islands. I am at present a practicing 

 physician at Oakland, Cal. During my stay on the islands I made fre- 

 quent visits to the different seal rookeries. One thing which attracted 

 my attention was the immense number of dead young seals; another 

 was the presence of quite a number of young seals on all the rookeries 

 in an emaciated and apparently very weak condition. I was requested 

 by the Government agent to examine some of the carcasses for the pur- 

 pose of determining the cause or causes of their death. I visited and 

 walked over all the rookeries. On all, dead seals were to be found in 

 immense numbers. Their number was more apparent on those rookeries 

 such as Tolstoi and Halfway Point, the water sides of which were on 



