242 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



dark night they landed and killed a few hundred seals, but the numbers 

 taken in this manner are too small to be considered. (A. Melovedoff.) 



One cause of destruction is raiding, which has been done upon the 

 shores of the islands. A half dozen such raids are known to me per- 

 sonally ; but while it is not possible for me to state with certainty the 

 skins actually secured by such raids, I believe that, although such 

 raiding is detrimental, its injurious effect as compared with the disas- 

 trous results of pelagic sealing is insignificant. (T. F. Morgan.) 



There was only, as I recollect, four raids on the islands while I was 

 there; but little or no damage was done, and seal life was not percep- 

 tibly affected by such marauding. (J. H. Moulton.) 



From my personal knowledge of the number of seals killed upon the 

 Pribilof Islands by raids upon the rookeries during my residence there, 

 and from information gained from other sources, I conclude that the 

 number of fur seals killed is infinitely small compared with the number 

 killed in pelagic sealing so small as to have no appreciable effect 

 upon seal life upon the islands. (8. K. Nettleton.) 



I am told that the diminution of seal life has been attributed to raids 

 by poachers upon the seal islands. Very few of these have occurred, 

 and the number of skins obtained by the poachers has been compara- 

 tively infinitesimally small. I think the whole number obtained by 

 them in this way does not exceed 3,000 or 4,000 skins. We were accus- 

 tomed always to maintain a patrol and guard upon the rookeries when- 

 ever the weather was such that poachers could land upon them, and 

 upon the least suspicious circumstances measures were taken to fore- 

 stall any attempts to steal the seals. The sea is usually rough in the 

 fall, when poachers try to get in their work; the shores are, at most 

 places, inaccessible from boats, and the natives are vigilant and active. 

 If marine hunting is stopped, they can be safely trusted to defend the 

 property upon which their very existence is dependent, as they have 

 done repeatedly, against any single schooner's crew. (Gustave Niv- 

 baum.) 



There were occasional raids made upon the islands (Commander) by 

 poachers during our twenty years' lease, but they were generally unsuc- 

 cessful in killing any considerable number of seals, and their raids had 

 no appreciable effect upon the rookeries. (Gustave Niebaum.) 



During those years the lawless occupation of seal poaching was in 

 its infancy. Marauding vessels from time to time were seen in these 

 waters, but the islands were so well guarded that during my term of 

 office there never was a successful raid or landing upon either of the 

 islands of St. Paul or St. George. The only landing upon any island of 

 the group was made in June, 1881, upon the unoccupied island of Otter 

 (not included in the lease), as described in my special report to the 

 Secretary of the Treasury, dated July 4, 1881. On that occasion a pred- 

 atory schooner succeeded in landing a boat's crew, who killed 40 or 50 

 seals, when they were driven off by a boat sent by me for that purpose 

 from St. Paul, about 6 miles distant. (H. G. Otis.) 



Until 1884 sealing schooners were seen but very seldom near the 

 islands or in Bering Sea, and the few seals taken by the hunters who 

 raided the rookeries occasionally are too paltry to be seriously consid- 

 ered, because the raids were so few, and the facilities for taking many 

 seals off so utterly insignificant. (J. C. Redpath.) 



