264 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



We entered Bering Sea the middle of May and captured 300 while 

 in there. Most of these were mother seals with their breasts full of 

 milk. (Thomas Bradley.) 



I hunted in Bering Sea in 1889 (that being the only year I ever went 

 to that sea) and hunted seals with spears about 70 miles southwest off 

 the islands, and our catch was nearly all cows that had given birth to 

 their young and had milk in their teats. (Peter Brown.) 



Have killed cows with milk about 60 miles off the Pribilof Islands. 

 A few old bulls were killed by me last season. (Charles Campbell.) 



At least seven out of eight seals caught in Bering Sea were mothers 

 in milk. (Charles Challall.) 



We entered the sea through the Unimak Pass, and captured therein 

 about 40 seals, most all of which had milk in their breasts. (Louis 

 Culler.) 



The waters were full of them at that time. We caught them from 50 

 to 00 miles off the seal islands. (John Dalton.) 



But the seals I caught in Bering Sea were most all cows in milk. 

 (Frank Davis.) 



The proportion of female seals killed in Bering Sea is equally large, 

 but the destruction to seal life is much greater, owing to the fact that 

 when a mother seal is killed her suckling pup left at the rookery also 

 perishes. Impregnation having also taken place before she left the 

 rookery in search of food, the fetus of the next year's birth is likewise 

 destroyed. (James H. Douglass.) 



We left San Francisco and fished up the coast until we entered Bering 

 Sea, in July, and sealed about the sea until we were driven off by the 

 revenue cutter Corwin. From there we went to the Copper Islands. 

 Our whole catch amounted to 900 skins, and we killed most of them with 

 rifles. We only got about one out of eight that we shot at, and they 

 were most all females giving milk or in pup. When we cut the hide off 

 you could see the milk running from the breasts of the seals. The 

 second year we got over 1,300 skins ; some of them were cows with pups 

 in them, and most all the rest were cows giving milk, and some of the 

 latter we killed as far from the rookeries as Unimak Pass. (Peter Duffy.) 



We entered Bering Sea about April and we got 795 in there, the 

 largest part of which were mother seals in milk. When we were skin- 

 ning them the milk would run on the deck. (John Fyfe.) 



I know that fully 75 per cent of those we caught in Bering Sea were 

 cows in milk. (Thomas Gibson.) 



My observation and the information obtained from seal hunters con- 

 vince me that fully 90 per cent of the seals found swimming in Bering 

 Sea during the breeding season are females in search of food, and their 

 slaughter results in the destruction of her young by starvation. (M. A. 

 Healy.) 



While in Bering Sea we cruised around the Pribilof Islands in all 

 directions, often coming within view of them but never landing or mak- 

 ing any attempt to do so. The proportion of females taken to males 

 was about 70 per cent, more than two-thirds of these being nursing 

 cows, while the remainder were 2 year olds and yearlings. On first 

 entering the sea an occasional pregnant cow would be taken, but this 

 was uncommon. Of the males taken in Bering Sea the numbers of 



