220 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



came first about eight or nine years ago, and more and more every year 

 since, and the seals get less and less ever since schooners came; and 

 my people kept saying "No cows," "Xo cows. 7 ' First the cows get less 

 and then the bachelors get less, and the company agent he says "kill 

 smaller seals, 7 ' and we kill some whose skins weigh only 4| pounds, 

 instead of 7 pounds, same as they always got. Then we coufd not get 

 enough of seals and at last we could hardly get enough for meat. 

 Schooners kill cows, pups die, and seals are gone. (Karp Buterin.) 



The cause of this decrease I believe to be due to the promiscuous 

 killing of the seals by hunters in the open sea and the disturbance 

 caused by their presence in destroying the mother seals and scattering 

 the herds. (James H. Douglass.) 



I know of no other cause for the decrease than that of the killing of 

 the cows at sea by the pelagic hunters, which I believe must be pro- 

 hibited if the Alaskan fur seal is to be saved from total destruction. 

 (C. L. Fowler.) 



In my opinion pelagic sealing is the cause of redriving on the islands, 

 the depletion of the rookeries, and promises to soon make the Alaska 

 fur-seal herd a thing of the past. If continued as it is to-day, even if 

 killing on the islands was absolutely forbidden, the herd will in a few 

 years be exterminated. (Charles J. Go ft'.) 



During my visit to the islands of St. Paul and St. George for the last 

 twenty years I have carefully noticed that those islands were visited 

 by great herds of fur seals during the breeding season, and that, 

 although 100,000 male seals were taken annually at the islands by the 

 lessees, no perceptible diminution in their numbers was noticeable until 

 within the past few years, when the killing of seals in the open sea on 

 the part of fishing vessels became prevalent, since which time there 

 has been a very perceptible diminution in the number of seals seen in 

 the water of Bering Sea and hauling grounds on the islands. This 

 decrease has become alarmingly sudden in the last three or four years, 

 due, I believe, to the ruthless and indiscriminate methods of destruc- 

 tion employed by vessels in taking female seals in the open sea. (Capt. 

 M. A. Healey.) 



I made the conditions of seal life a careful study for years, and I am 

 firmly of the opinion their decrease in number on the Pribilof Islands 

 is due wholly and entirely to hunting and killing them in the open sea. 

 {W. S. Hereford.) 



When in 1886 we all saw the decrease of seals upon the hauling 

 grounds and rookeries, we asked each other what was the cause of it, 

 but when we learned that white men were shooting seals in the water 

 with guns we knew what was the matter; we knew that if they killed 

 seals in the water that they must be nearly all females that were going 

 out to feed, for the males stay on the islands until they get ready to go 

 away in the fall or winter. It was among the cows we first noticed the 

 decrease, and as we never kill the cows on the islands, we knew they 

 must be killing them in the water. (Aggei Kushen.) 



There can be no question, in my opinion, about the ultimate result to 

 the rookeries of marine sealing. If it is continued as it has been for 

 the last two or three years, the seals will be so nearly wiped out of exist- 

 ence in a short time as to leave nothing to quarrel about, and an article 

 of commerce that has afforded a vast amount of comfort and satisfac- 

 tion to a large class of wearers and a large income to both American 

 and Brjtish merchants will be a thing of the past. (Isaac Liebes.) 



