SEAL LIF1-: OX TI1K PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 229 



tact to tin* Secretary of the- Treasury, and advised the taking of a less 

 number of skins the following: year. Pursuant to such report the ( lov- 

 ernment fixed the number to be taken as (JO. 000, and further ordered 

 that all killing of seals upon the islands should stop after the liOth day 

 of .July. 1 was further ordered to notify the natives upon t lie Aleutian 

 islands that all killing of seals while coming from or going to the seal 

 islands was prohibited. These rules and regulations went into effect 

 in 1 SIM), and pursuant thereto 1 posted notices for the natives at various 

 points along the Aleutian chain, and saw that the orders in relation to 

 the time ot killing and i. umber allowed to be killed were executed upon 

 the islands. As a result of the enforcement of these regulations, the 

 lessees were unable to take more than 21,1* >s seals of the killable age 

 of from 1 to r> years during the season of 1890, so great had been the 

 decrease of seal life in one year, find it would have been impossible to 

 obtain 00,000 skins even if the time had been unrestricted. (Charles 

 J. Goff.) 



The Table A, appended to this affidavit, shows how great has been 

 the decrease on St. Paul Island's hauling grounds, bearing in mind the 

 fact that the driving and killing were done by the same persons as in 

 former years, and were as diligently carried on, the weather being as 

 favorable as in 1880 for seal driving. I believe that the sole causes of 

 the decrease is pelagic sealing, which, from reliable information, I under- 

 stand to have increased greatly since 1884 or 1885. Another fact I 

 have gained from reliable sources is that the great majority of the seals 

 taken in the open sea are pregnant females or females in milk. It is 

 an unquestionable fact that the killing of these females destroys the 

 pups they are carrying or nursing. The result is, that this destruction 

 of pups takes about equally from the male and female increase of the 

 herd, and when so many male pups are killed in this manner, besides 

 the ] 00,000 taken o the islands, it necessarily affects the number of 

 killable seals. I n 1880 this drain upon male seal life showed itself on the 

 islands, and this, in my opinion, accounts for the necessity of the lessees 

 taking so many young seals that year to fill out their quota. As soon 

 as the effects of pelagic, sealing were noticed by me upon the islands 

 I reported the same, and the Government at once took steps to limit 

 the killing upon the islands, so that the rookeries might have an oppor- 

 tunity to increase their numbers to their former condition; but it will 

 be impossible to repair the depletion if pelagic sealing continues. I 

 have no doubt, as 1 reported, that the taking of 100.000 skins in 1889 

 affected the male life on the islands and cut into the reserve of male 

 seals necessary to preserve annually for breeding purposes in the 

 future, but this fact did not become evident until it was too late to 

 repair the fault tha t year. Except for the numbers destroyed by pelagic 

 sealing in the years previous to 18S9 the hauling grounds would not 

 have been so depleted, and the taking of 100,000 male seals would not 

 have impaired the reserve for breeding purposes or diminished to any 

 extent the seal life on the Pribilof Islands. Even in this diminished 

 state of the rookeries in 1889 I carefully observed that in the majority 

 of cases the 4 and 5 year old males were allowed to drop out of a 

 Ff drive" before the bachelors had been driven any distance from the 

 hauling grounds. These seals were let go for the sole purpose of sup- 

 plying sufficient future breeders. (Charles J. Goff'.) 



I believe there has been a great decrease in the numbers of the fur- 

 s';il species. I do not believe that there are now one tenth as many 

 fin seals frequenting the Pribilof Islands as there were ten years ago. 



