216 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



that the cow recognizes her own pup but that the pup does not know its darn. At 

 birth, and for several weeks after, the pup is utterly helpless and entirely dependent 

 upon its dam for sustenance, and should anything prevent her return during this 

 period, it dies on the rookery. This has been demonstrated beyond a doubt since 

 the sealing vessels have operated largely in Bering Sea during the months of July, 

 August, and September, and which, killing the cows at the feeding grounds, left the 

 pups to die on the islands. 



At about 5 weeks old the pups begin to run about and congregate in bunches or 

 "pods/' and at 6 to 8 weeks old they go into the shallow water and gradually learn 

 to swim. They are not amphibious when born, nor can they swim for several weeks 

 thereafter, and were they put into the water Avould perish beyond a doubt, as has 

 been well established by the drowning of pups caught by the surf in stormy weather. 

 After learning to swim the pups still draw sustenance from the cows, and I have 

 noticed at the annual killing of pups for food in November that their stomachs were 

 always full of milk and nothing else, although the cows had left the islands some 

 days before. I have no knowledge of the pups obtaining sustenance of any kind 

 except that furnished by the cows, nor have I ever seen any thing but milk in a dead 

 pup's stomach. 



Karp Buteriii says : 



Schooners kill cows, pups die, and seals are gone. Some meu tell me last year, 

 " Karp, seals are sick." I know seals are not sick; I never seen a sick seal, and I 

 eat seal meat every day of my life. No big seals die unless we club them ; only pups 

 die for food after the cows are shot at sea. When we used to kill pups for food in 

 November, they were always full of milk ; the pups that die on the rookeries have no 

 milk. The cows go into the sea to feed after the pups are born, and the schooner 

 men shoot them all the time. 



Captain Carthcut says: 



About 80 per cent of the seals 1 caught in Bering Sea were mothers in milk, and 

 were feeding around the fishing banks just north of the Aleutian Islands, and I got 

 most of ruy seals from 50 to 250 miles from the seal islands. I don't think I ever 

 sealed within 25 miles of the Pribilof Islands. They are very tame after giving 

 birth to their young, and are easily approached by the hunters. When the females 

 leave the islands to feed, they will go very fast to the iishing banks, and after they 

 get their food they will go to sleep on the waters. That is the hunter's great chance. 

 I think we secure*more in proportion to the number killed than we did in the North 

 Pacific. I hunted with shotgun and rifle, but mostly with shotgun. Seals were not 

 nearly as numerous in 1887 as they were in 1877, and it is my belief that the decrease 

 in numbers is due to the hunting and killing of female seals in the water. I do not 

 think it possible for seals to exist for any length of time if the present slaughter 

 continues. The killing of the female means death to her born or unborn pup, and it 

 is not reasonable to expect that this immense drain on the herds can be continued 

 without a very rapid decrease in their numbers, and which practically means exter- 

 mination within a very few years. 



Christ Clausen says: 



The Indian hunters, when they use spears, saved nearly every one they struck. 

 It is my observation and experience that an Indian or a white hunter, unless very 

 expert, will kill and destroy many times more than he will save if he uses firearms. 

 It is our object to take them when asleep on the water, and any attempt to capture 

 a breaching seal generally ends in failure. 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 frequently seen cow seals cut open and 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 I took in Bering 

 Sea were females and had given birth to their pups, and their teats would be full of 

 milk. I have caught seals of this kind 100 to 150 miles from Pribilof Islands. It is 

 my opinion that spears should be used in hunting seals, and if they are to be kept 

 from extermination the shotgun should be discarded. 



George Dishow says : 



I use a shotgun exclusively for taking seals. Old hunters lose but very few seals, 

 but beginners lose a great many. I use the Parker shotgun. A large proportion of 

 all seals taken are females with pup. I never examined them as to sex. But very 

 few old bulls are taken, only five being taken out of a total of 900 seals taken by my 

 schooner. Use no discrimination in killing seal, but shoot everything that comes 

 near the boat in the shape of a seal. Hunters shoot seal in the most exposed part of 

 the body. Have never known any pups to be born in the water, nor on the land on 



