266 SEAL LIFE OX THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



18th or 19th of July, and I caught 90 seals, mostly all females. * * * 

 When we were in Bering Sea we hunted from 40 to 200 miles off the 

 seal islands. (Patrick Maroney.) 



About two-thirds of those caught in Bering Sea were females that 

 had big teats and were giving milk. We could tell that when we were 

 skinning them, because the milk would run out on the decks. (Wil- 

 liam Mason.) 



We sealed around Unalaska, but did not go toward the Pribilof 

 Islands. We caught 1,900 seals, all of which were captured in the sea, 

 close to Uualaska ; most all of them were cows in milk ; but when we first 

 entered the sea we killed a few cows that had pups in them. * * * 

 That year we sealed east of the island and caught about 800 seals. I 

 do not know how far we were from the islands, for we could not see 

 them. The seals we caught were mostly cows with milk. (Moses.) 



I was sealing in Bering Sea during July, August, and September, 

 1885 and 1886. I was cruising in Bering Sea around about the Pribilof 

 Islands, and from 100 to 300 miles off. The principal portion of the 

 cruising was between the Aleutian and Pribilof islands. One of the 

 principal sealing grounds is off Bogslof. (Xiles Nelson.) 



After entering the sea we got one female with a very large pup, which 

 I took out alive and kept it for three or four days, when it died, as it 

 would not eat anything. All the others had given birth to their young, 

 and their breasts were full of milk. (John Olsen.) 



The seals taku in Bering Sea are nearly all grown. We get but very 

 few young seals. I think we catch in Bering Sea more males in pro- 

 portion to females than we do on the coast. We catch a good many 

 females in Bering Sea that have given birth to their young on the 

 islands and are in milk. I have caught plenty of cow seals in milk 

 100 miles or more from the islands, but seldom get any that have a pup 

 in them in those waters. (William Parker.) 



We entered Bering Sea about the 15th of August through the Unimak 

 Pass and captured therein 1,404 seals, most of which were cows in milk. 

 On that voyage we caught female seals in milk over 80 miles from the 

 rookeries where they had left their young. (Charles Peterson.) 



The seals captured in Bering Sea were fully 80 per cent females that 

 had given birth to their young. A fact that I often noticed was that 

 their teats would be full of milk when I skinned them, and I have seen 

 them killed Irom 20 to 100 miles from the seal islands. ( Edwin P. Porter.) 



Q. How do you know that the marauders kill females principally? 

 A. I know that the females, after giving birth to their young on the 

 rookeries, frequent the open sea in search of food, whereas the males 

 frequent the hauling grounds or waters immediately around it. At 

 various times I have seen skins which were seized by the cutters from 

 the poachers, and they were substantially female skins. ( J. 0. lied path.) 



I have been in Behring Sea but a part of one season. Of the seals 

 taken, about one-third were males, one third females with young, one- 

 third barren and yearlings. (W. Roberts.) 



I have taken nursing females when as much as 100 miles from Prib- 

 ilof Islands. I estimate that the seals killed by pelagic hunters are at 

 least 90 per cent females; this estimate is based on the great number 

 of motherless pups I have observed on the rookeries, and also on state- 



