SLAL LIFE <?X THE PIJ1IJ1LUK ISLANDS, 231 



Ten or twelve years ago the rookeries and sea were full of seals, hut 

 now there are not a great many. We used to kill 85,000 in less than 

 two moiirlis" time on St. Paul Island, and our people earned plenty of 

 money to buy everything they wanted, and in the winter we killed _!, 000 

 or 3,000 male pups for food and clothing. Now we are not allowed to 

 kill any more pups, and only 7, 500 male seals for food, and the people 

 are very much worried to know what is To become of them and their 

 children. (Jacob Kotehootten.) 



1 remember the first time I noticed a decrease of seals on the rook- 

 eries, about seven or eight years ago, and the seals have become fewer 

 every year since. We used to kill 85,000 seals on St. Paul Island in 

 less than sixty days' time until 1890, when they became so few we 

 could not take more than about one-fourth of that number in the same 

 length of time. (Nicoli Krukofif.) 



All our people know the seals are getting scarcer every year, and we 

 think it is because of the schooners coming in and shooting the cows 

 the sea. (Nicoli Krukoff.) 



About 1885 a decrease was observed, and that deciease has become 

 more marked every year from 1885 to the present time. (Aggei Ku- 

 shen.) 



There are not one fourth as many seals now as there were in 188:3, 

 and our people are very much alarmed to know what is to become of 

 them after the seals are killed off. If the seals decrease as fast as they 

 have during the past five or six years there will be none left in a very 

 short time for us to live upon. (Aggei Kushen.) 



During the time from 1885 to 1889 there was a very marked decrease 

 in the size of the breeding grounds on St. Paul Island, and from 1887 to 

 1889 I also noticed a great decrease in the areas covered, by the rook- 

 eries on St. George Island. (Abial P. Loud.) 



In his report of 1886 and 1887 George E. Tingle, special Treasury 

 agent in charge of the seal islands, reported having measured the rook- 

 eries on the islands, and that the seals had largely increased in number, 

 giving the increase at about ^,000,000. From this report I dissented at 

 the time, as I was unable to see any increase, but, on the contrary, a 

 perceptible decrease, in the rookeries. I expressed my views to many 

 on the islands and all agreed that there had been no increase in the seal 

 life. The measurements of the rookeries on which Mr. Tingle relied 

 were made with a common rope by ignorant natives while the seals were 

 absent from the islands, the grounds covered by them being designated 

 by Mr. Tingle from memory. (Abial P. Loud.) 



During the three years following 1882, namely, 1883, 1884, and 1885, 1 

 was not upon the islands. Upon iny return in* 1880 I noticed a slight 

 shrinkage in the breeding areas, but am unable to indicate the year of 

 the period of my absence in which the decrease of breeding seals began. 

 From the year 1<S8(> to 18S9, inclusive, my observation was continuous, 

 and there was a greater decrease of the seals for each succeeding year 

 of that period in a cumulative ratio, proportionate to the number of 

 seals killed by the pelagic sealers. (H. H. Mclntyre.) 



In 1SS<; I again assumed personal direction of the work upon the 

 islands, and continued in charge to and including 1889. And now, for 

 the first time in my experience, there was difficulty in securing such 

 skins as was wanted. The trouble was not particularly marked in 1886, 



