210 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



take place when the vessels fitting up every year are ready, will, I am 

 afraid, soon deplete our fur-seal fishery, and it is a great pity such a 

 valuable industry could not in some way be protected. (Extract from 

 reports of the department of fisheries of Canada, 188G, by Thomas 

 Mowat, inspector of fisheries for British Columbia, p. U68. Cited in 

 British Case, Appendix, Vol. Ill, p. 173; United States Xo. 1890.) 



The majority of our hunters contend that there are over 7 per cent 

 of pups in the entire catch of fur seals on the coast, while in Bering 

 Sea the catch does not exceed 1 per cent. But they can not deny the 

 fact that 60 per cent of the entire catch of Bering Sea is made up of 

 female seals. (Extract from reports of the department of fisheries, 

 Canada, 1888, p. 241, by Thomas Mowat, inspector of fisheries for Brit- 

 ish Columbia. Cited in United States Case, p. 201.) 



Mel Bonde, of Victoria, sealer. (Case of United States, Appendix, 

 Vol. II, p. 315.) 



Bonde has been out four years on sealing schooners from Victoria, 

 namely, from 1887 to 1890, inclusive. He says : 



The seals caught along the coast after the 1st of April were mostly pregnant females, 

 and those caught in Bering Sea were females that had given birth to their young. 

 I often noticed the milk flowing out of their breasts when being skinned and have 

 seen live pups cut out of their mothers and live around on the decks for a week. 



Cross-examination by the British Government (see British Counter 

 Case, Vol. II, p. 94): 



That on each of said vessels [namely, the four he had served on] 1 have had more 

 or less to do with skinning the seals, and would say that about 60 per cent on the 

 coast were females and about 50 per cent in Bering Sea. I distinguished the male 

 skin from the female by the absence of teats. 



Christ Clausen, of Victoria, master mariner (Case of United States, 

 Appendix, Vol. II, p. 319) : 



Acted as mate in 1889. Was navigator on schooner Minnie in 1890. 



My catch that year was 2,600, of which about 2,000 were caught in Bering Sea. 



Acted as navigator on same vessel in 1891. 



The seals we catch along the coast are nearly all pregnant females. It is seldom 

 we capture an old bull, and what males we get are usually young ones. I have fre- 

 quently seen cow seals cut open and the unborn pups cut out of them, and they 

 would live for several days. This is a frequent occurrence. It is my experience that 

 fully 85 per cent of the seals 1 took in Bering Sea were females that had given birth 

 to their pups, and their teats would be full of milk. I have caught seals of this 

 kind from 100 to 150 miles away from the Pribilof Islands. 



E. M. Greenleaf, of Victoria, master mariner (Case of the United 

 States, Appendix, Vol. II, p. 324) : 



Since then (1882) I have been interested in the sealing business, and am well 

 acquainted with it and the men engaged in it and the methods employed. I am 

 acquainted with the hunters and masters who sail from this port, and board all 

 incoming and outgoing vessels of that class. These men all acknowledge that nearly 

 all the seals taken off the Pacific Coast are females, and that they are nearly all with 

 young. 



* * * # # * * 



I have also learned by conversation with Bering Sea hunters that they kill seal 

 cows 20 to 200 miles from the breeding grounds and that these cows had recently 

 given birth to young. I have observed in the skins that the size of the teats show 

 either an advanced state of pregnancy or of recent delivery of young. 



Arthur Griffin, of Victoria, sealer (Case of United States, Appendix, 

 Vol. II, p. 325) : 



He went sealing in 1890. 



Began sealing off the northern coast of California, following the sealing herd 

 northward, capturing about 700 seals in the North Pacific Ocean, two-thirds of which 

 were females with pups ; the balance were young seals, both male and female. We 

 entered Bering Sea July 13 through Unimak Pass and captured between 900 and 

 1,000 seals therein, most of which were females in milk. 



