224 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



the open sea is permitted to continue it will only be a very short time 

 until the herd is destroyed. (Charles T. Wagner.) 



I have no doubt that it is caused by the killing of female seals in the 

 water, and, if continued, will certainly end in their extermination. 

 (M. L. Washburn.) 



I am convinced that if open-sea sealing had never been indulged in 

 to the extent it has since 1885, or perhaps a year or two earlier, 100,000 

 male skins could have been taken annually forever from the Pribilof 

 Islands without decreasing the seal herd below its normal size and con- 

 dition. The cause of the decrease which has taken place can be 

 accounted for only by open-sea sealing; for, until that means of destruc- 

 tion to seal life grew to be of such proportions as to alarm those inter- 

 ested in the seals, the seal herd increased, and since that time the 

 decrease of the number of seals has been proportionate to the increase 

 in the number of those engaged in open-sea sealing. From 1884 to 

 1891 I saw their numbers decline, under the same careful management, 

 until in the latter year there was not more than one-fourth of their 

 numbers coming to the islands. In my judgment there is but one cause 

 for that decline and the present condition of the rookeries, and that 

 is the shotgun and rifle of the pelagic hunter, and it is my opinion 

 that if the lessees had not taken a seal on the islands for the last 

 ten years we would still find the breeding grounds in about the same 

 condition as they are to-day, so destructive to seal life are the methods 

 adopted by these hunters. (Daniel Webster.) 



Deponent, by reason of his experience in the business, his observa- 

 tion, conversations with those physically engaged in catching and curing 

 skins, and the custody of herds on the islands, feels justified in express- 

 ing the opinion that the numbers of the seal herds have, since the 

 introduction of the open-sea sealing on a large scale, suffered serious 

 diminution. The killing of large numbers of females heavy with young 

 can not, in deponent's knowledge, but have that effect. (C. A. Williams.) 



I made careful inquiry of the people on the islands, both native and 

 white, and of those who were or had been employed as masters or mates 

 on sealing vessels, and others interested one way or another in the cap- 

 ture of fur seals for food or for profit, and failed to find any of them but 

 who admitted that the number of seals in Bering Sea was much less 

 now than a few years since, and nearly all of them gave it as their 

 opinion that the decrease in number was due to pelagic hunting, or, as 

 they more frequently expressed it, the killing of females in the water. 

 (W. H. Williams.) 



DECREASE OF THE ALASKAN SEAL HERD. 



After 1882 they seemed to stay about the same, as far as the number 

 of breeders was concerned, as long as I was there. (John Armstrong.) 



I ascertained by questioning those who had years of continuous expe- 

 rience with the seals that up to the year 1882 there was an annual expan- 

 sion of the boundaries of the breeding grounds ; that this was followed 

 by a period of stagnation, which in turn was followed by a marked 

 decadence from about 1885-86 down to the present time. ( J. Stanley- 

 Brown.) 



I am unable to state whether the seals increased or not during my 

 residence on St. Paul, but they certainly did not decrease, except, per- 

 haps, there was a slight decrease in 1884. In all my conversations with 



