SKAL I.IFK ON THK PRIBILoF ISLANDS. '2 4 1 



The reports of the superintendent for the lessees show that it was the 

 custom of the company's agent on the islands to frequently patrol the 

 rookeries whenever the weather was such that a, landing could be effected 

 on them, and to keep watchmen at points distant from the villages, 

 whose special dntv it was to report every unusual or suspicious occur- 

 rence. Kor this purpose the northeast point of St. Paul Island was 

 connected with the village by telephone in 1880, a distance of 12 miles, 

 and the natives instructed in the use of the instrument. If any raids 

 upon the islands, other than those herein mentioned, had occurred, 1 am 

 sure they would have been detected and reported to this office. No such 

 reports are on tile. (Max. ileilbronner.) 



H. 11. Mclntyre, having been duly sworn, deposes and says: I was 

 superintendent of the seal h'sberies of Alaska from 1871 to 1889, inclu- 

 sive. The records above referred to were kept under my direction by 

 my assistants on the respective islands. 1 was in frequent correspond- 

 ence with these assistants when not personally present and am sure that 

 anything worthy of notice would have been promptly reported to me. 

 1 believe that these records contain a true account of all destructive 

 raids upon the islands. If there had been any others I should have 

 heard of them. Every unusual occurrence at any point about the islands 

 was noted by the keen eyed natives and at once reported to the com- 

 pany's office, the matter was investigated, and a record of it entered in 

 the daily journal. I am confident that the only marauding expedition 

 that ever succeeded in killing more than a few dozen seals each were 

 those of 1875, upon Otter Island, and of 188.") upon St. George Island, 

 the details of which were set forth by Mr. Heilbronner in the foregoing 

 affidavit. If there were others of which no records appear the number 

 of seals killed was comparatively very small and had no appreciable 

 effect upon seal life. (II. H. Me 1 11 tyre.) 



Sometimes they try to laud on the rookeries, but we drive them off 

 with guns, and they never get many seals that way. (Nicoli Krukoff.) 



I do not mean to say that the seals were injured because a few were 

 killed on the rookeries, when men from schooners landed on the islands 

 in the night or when the fog was very thick, lor the numbers killed in 

 that way never amounted to much, as it is not often the raiders can 

 land on a rookery and escape with their plunder. (Aggie Knshen.) 



When on a raid we would watch for a favorable opportunity to make 

 a landing, and then kill male and female fur seals indiscriminately. 

 Probably for every 500 marketable skins secured, double that number 

 of pups were destroyed. (L. M. Lenard.) 



While I was on the island there were not more than three or four 

 raids on the rookeries to my knowledge, and I think that the destruction 

 to seal life by raiding rookeries is a small part of 1 per cent as compared. 

 with the numbers taken by killing in the water. (A. P. Loud.) 



It is often difficult to entirely prevent poaching on the islands, 

 although in my judgment it has not been of sufficient importance on 

 the Commander Islands to have any perceptible influence in the diminu- 

 tion of the herd. (John Malowansky.) 



I remember seeing an occasional sealing schooner in Bering Sea as 

 long ago as 1878, but it was in 1884 they came in large numbers. At 

 tirst it was supposed they intended to raid the rookeries, and we armed 

 a number of men and kept guard every night, and we drove off any 

 boats we found coming to a rookery. Sometimes in a dense fog or very 

 S. Doc. 137, pt. 1 16 



