164 SI;AL LIFI; ON THE PKIIULOF ISLANDS. 



were apparently deserted by their inolliers. Fourth, the plump, 

 healthy appearance of all i he pups 1 saw nursing. Fifth, the emaciated 

 condition of I lie dead. Sixth, the absence of food in the stomachs 

 and their contracted condition. Seventh, the absence of digested food 

 in the intestines. Fighth, the absence of even fecal matter, save in 

 small amounts in a tew eases. Ninth, the absence ot structural 

 changes in the viscera or other parts of the bodies to account for the 

 death. 



.1. C. s. AKKKL\, Ph. U.. M. I). 



CIT^ OF WASHINGTON. 



/>/.viY/V/ ot Columbia^ -v.v : 



Henry \V. Flliott, being duly sworn, deposes and says: 1 am a resi- 

 dent of Cleveland, Ohio, where 1 was born; am Hi years of aye, and 

 am a citi/en of the Tnited States. 



1 iirst visited the Pribilof Islands in April, 1ST-, under the joint 

 appointment of the I'nited States Treasury Department and of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and resided thereon until August, 1S7.">. In 

 I<s71 1 made another prolonged visit under the authority of a special 

 act of Congress. 1 visited the islands again brielly in IS7<>, and during 

 May. June, .Inly, and August, under authority of a special act of ( 'on- 

 gress, in 1S1M). During each visit I carefully studied the seal life on 

 these islands, and investigated the habits of the fur seals. In these 

 years 1 also visited the various islands in and around Bering Sea, the 

 leading ports and inhabited places on the mainland and islands of 

 Alaska in the Pacific Ocean, as also the ports of liritish Columbia and 

 the I'nited States; witnessed the methods of pelagic sealing, con- 

 versed with many pelagic seal hunters, shipmasters, and fur traders, 

 and sought in all possible ways to acquaint myself fully with seal life 

 and the taking of seals. 



The Pribilof Islands possess a peculiar climate. There are but two 

 seasons, winter and summer; the former begins with November and 

 ends with April, the mean temperature being L'O to -<> F. above /ero; 

 summer brings only a slight elevation in the temperature, between 1~> 

 or L'O , so that the mean temperature of that season is 40 to M). 

 \\ ith the opening of the summer, about the 1st of May, a cold, moist 

 fog settles down upon these islands, and is ever present until the hit ter 

 part of October. It is doubtless to this remarkably damp and sunless 

 atmosphere, together with (he isolation of these islands, and the fact 

 that from their formation they are rapidly drained, that the seals seek 

 these islands to breed: in fact, if is necessary that such a sunless ami 

 inoiM climate with a low temperature should exist for this species of 

 fur <ea 1 when on la nd. a ml it becomes highly import an I t hat t hey should 

 be so protected as to make their chosen home as free from unnecessary 

 molestation as possible. It is (jiiilc certain that the seal herd which 

 perennially frequents the Pribilof Islands has no ot her terrest rial haunt, 

 and now never lands, even temporarily, on any other terra lirma in or 

 bounding the Pacific Ocean or Kering Sea. 



When all the climatic, topographical, and other facts are considered) 

 which are so remarkably favorable to seal lile on the Pribilof Islands, 



