SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 215 



Pribilof Islands, but I have often killedseals in milk at distances of not less than 100 

 to 200 miles from these islands. From my knowledge and experience in the business 

 it is my conviction that within the last few years, since the sealers have become so 

 numerous in the Pacific and Bering Sea, that not more than one out of three is 

 secured. ( )ui purpose and practice was to take all seals we could get, regardless of 

 their age or sex. without any discrimination whatever. 



M. A. Healy: 



My own observation and the information obtained from seal hunters convince me 

 that fully i'O per cent of the seals found swimming in Bering Sea during the 

 breeding season are females in search of food, and the slaughter results in the 

 destruction of her young by starvation. I firmly believe that the fur-seal industry 

 at the Pribilof Islands can be saved from destruction only by a total prohibition 

 against killing seals, not only in the waters of Bering Sea, but also during their 

 annual immigration northward in the Pacific Ocean. 



This conclusion is based upon the well-known fact that the mother seals are 

 slaughtered by the thousands in the North Pacific while on their way to the islands 

 to give birth to their young, and extinction must necessarily come to any species of 

 animal where the female is continually hunted and killed during the period required 

 for gestation and rearing of her young. As now practiced, there is no respite to the 

 female seal from the relentless pursuit of the seal hunters, for the schooners close 

 their season with the departure of the seals from the northern sea and then return 

 home, refit immediately, and start out upon a new voyage in February or March, 

 commencing upon the coast of California, Oregon, and Washington, following the 

 seals northward as the season advances into Bering Sea. 



Captain Caulson says: 



In company with Special Agent Murray, Captain Hooper, and Engineer Brerton, 

 of the Corwin, I visited the Reef and Garbotch rookeries, St. Paul Island, in August, 

 1891, and saw one of the most pitiable sights that I have ever witnessed. Thousands 

 of dead and dying pups were scattered over the rookeries, while the shores were 

 lined with emaciated, hungry little fellows, with their eyes turned toward the sea, 

 uttering plaintive cries for their mothers, which were destined never to return. 

 Numbers of them were opened, their stomachs examined, and the fact revealed that 

 starvation was the cause of death, no organic disease being apparent. 



The great number of seals taken by hunters in 1891 was to the westward and north- 

 westward of St. Paul Island, and the largest number of dead were found that year in 

 rookeries situated on the west side of the island. This fact alone goes a great way, 

 in my opinion, to confirm the theory that the loss of the mothers was the cause of 

 mortality among the young. 



After the mother seals have given birth to their young on the islands they go to 

 the water to feed and bathe, and I have observed them, not only around the island, 

 but from 80 to 100 miles out at sea. 



In different years the feeding grounds or the location where the greater number of 

 seals are taken by poachers seem to differ; in other words, the seals frequently change 

 feeding grounds. For instant, in 1887 the greatest number of seals were taken by 

 poachers between Unimak and Akntau passes and the seal islands, and to the south- 

 westward of St. George Island. In 1889 the catching was largely done to the south- 

 ward and eastward, in many cases from 50 to 150 miles distant from the seal islands. 

 In the season of 1890, to the southward and westward, also to northwest and north- 

 east of the islands, showing that the seals have been scattered. The season of 1891, 

 the greatest number were taken to northward and westward of St. Paul, and at 

 various distances from 25 to 150 miles away. 



Mr. Kedpath: 



The Alaskan fur seal is a native of the Pribilof Islands, and, unless prevented, will 

 return to those islands every year with the regularity of the seasons. All the pecul- 

 iarities of nature that surround the Pribilof group of islands, such as low and even 

 temperature, fog, mist, and perpetually clouded sky, seem to indicate their fitness and 

 adaptability as a home for the Alaskan fur seal; and, with an instinct bordering on 

 reason, they have selected these lonely and barren islands as the choicest spots of 

 earth upon which to assemble and dwell together during their six months' stay on 

 laud; and annually they journey across thousands of miles of ocean and pass hun- 

 dreds of islands, without pause or rest, until they come to the place of their birth. 

 And it is a well-established fact that upon no other land in the world do the Alaskan 

 fur seal haul out of water. 



J. C. Redpath says: 



No cow will nurse any pup but her own, and I have often watched the pups 

 attempt to suck cows, but they were always driven off, and this fact convinces me 



