SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 223 



life, and recommended that fewer seals be killed in future. There can 

 be no question as to the cause of the diminution. It is the direct result 

 of pelagic sealing, and the same destruction, if continued a few years 

 longer, will entirely dissipate any commercial value in the rookeries, if 

 it does not, indeed, annihilate them. (Gustave Niebaum.) 



In my opinion the solution of the problem is plain. It is the shotgun 

 and the ritie of the pelagic hunter which are so destructive to the cow 

 seals as they go backward and forward to the fishing banks to supply 

 the waste caused by giving nourishment to their young. At this time 

 they are destroyed by thousands, and their young of but a few weeks 

 old must necessarily die of starvation, for nature has provided no other 

 means of subsistence for them at this time of life. (L. A. Noyes.) 



Q. How do you account for it? A. By the numbers, principally 

 females, that are killed in the waters by marauders. (J. C. Eedpath.) 



I saw no diminution of seal life during my three years on the island. 

 The outlines of the rookeries remained just about the same from year 

 to year. I was told at the time that there had formerly been a large 

 increase, and did not then understand why it did not continue, as every 

 condition seemed favorable for it. "there were, apparently, an abun- 

 dance of bulls for service; every cow seemed to have a pup, and all 

 were healthy and in good condition. No females were killed, and in the 

 natural order of growth there ought to have been at this time a con- 

 stantly increasing area covered with breeding rookeries. Yet such was 

 not the case. The explanation of the matter came later, when we fairly 

 awoke to the fact that our animals were being slaughtered by tens of 

 thousands in the North Pacific. I knew in a commercial way from our 

 sales catalogue that a very large number of " Victoria skins," as they 

 were called, were being sent to market, and that this number grew con- 

 stantly larger; but I did not then know, as I now do, that each skin 

 sold represented a waste of two or three and perhaps even four or five 

 seals to obtain it. Nor was any attention given to the now well-known 

 fact that these animals were a part of our herd as wrongfully stolen 

 from us, I believe, as my cattle would be if driven in and appropriated 

 from the highway when lawfully feeding. (Leon Sloss.) 



Since my residence on the Pribilof Islands I have kept a very careful 

 watch of the progress of the events there, and have interviewed a great 

 many connected with the seal industry. I am of the conviction that 

 the reported decrease in seal life on these islands can be attributed to 

 no other cause save pelagic sealing. While I was located at St. George 

 Island in 1881 pelagic sealing was then and previous to that time had 

 i been of very little consequence, having very slight effect upon seal life. 

 Not more than four or five vessels were engaged in pelagic sealing in 

 1881 in the waters of Bering Sea, and prior to that time a still fewer 

 number were so engaged. But since 1881 this industry has grown yearly 

 until now about a hundred vessels are destroying the seals in great 

 numbers, and, as I am informed and believe, the great majority of those 

 killed are females. Then, too, large numbers are killed in this way 

 which are never recovered nor reported. (W. B. Taylor.) 



Scarcity of seal can be attributed to no other cause than pelagic 

 hunting and the indiscriminate shooting of seals in the open sea. both 

 in the North Pacific and Bering Sea. (John C. Tolman.) 



I am sure the decrease is caused by the killing of female seals in the, 

 open sea, and that if their destruction by the indiscriminate killing in 



