270 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



of all the seals we captured in the water were female seals. We caught 

 350 seals along the coast, all of which were females excepting UO. 

 (Charles Peterson.) 



The majority of seal killed by me have been cows; have killed a few 

 small males. (Showoosch.) 



From what I have been able to learn, the majority of seals taken 

 around Kodiak are females. (John C. Tolman.) 



In my conversation with men engaged in seal hunting in the open 

 water of the North Pacific and Bering Sea, I have not been able to get 

 sufficient information to form a reliable estimate of the average number 

 saved out of the total number shot nor oi' the percentage of females 

 killed. As a rule, the hunters are extremely reticent about giving 

 information on the subject to officers of the Government, but from the 

 well-known fact that the female seal is much more easily approached 

 than the male, and sleeps more frequently on the water, and is less 

 active when carrying her young, I have no doubt that the female is the 

 one that is being killed by the hunter. (Francis Tuttle.) 



I believe the number they secure is small as compared with the num- 

 ber they destroy. Were it males only that they killed the damage 

 would be temporary, but it is mostly females that they kill in the open 

 waters. (Daniel Webster.) 



I never paid any particular attention as to the exact number of or 

 proportion of each sex killed in Bering Sea, but I do know that the 

 larger portion of them were females, and were mothers giving milk. 

 (Michael White.) 



DECREASE OF SEALS. 



Opinions of white sealers. 



I have noticed a perceptible and gradual decrease in seal life for the 

 past few years, and attribute it to the large number of vessels engaged 

 in hunting them at sea. (Andrew Anderson.) 



In the sea, seals are much more timid and make off as fast as possible 

 at the approach of a vessel, while formerly they were usually quite 

 curious and would sport and play about the vessel when come up with. 

 I believe this decrease and timidity is due to the indiscriminate slaughter 

 of the seals by pelagic sealers. (G. F. Anderson.) 



Q. To what do you attribute the decrease? A. I attribute the decrease 

 to the indiscriminate slaughter of the seals. (George Ball.) 



I believe that the decrease in fur-seal life, which has been constant of 

 late years, is due principally to the number of vessels engaged in hunt- 

 ing them at sea. (J. A. Bradley.) 



Seven or eight years ago, when seals were hunted almost wholly by 

 Indians with spears, a vessel hunting in the vicinity of Gape Flattery 

 was sure of getting several hundred skins in about three months, from 

 March to the end of May, but at the present time a vessel is doing well 

 if she gets a much smaller number, because the skins bring much higher 

 prices. The records of "catches" in the last three or four years will 

 confirm any person who examines them in the belief that the seals are 

 decreasing in the Pacific Ocean on the American side. I have no reason 

 to doubt that it is the same on the Eussian side. At present they are 

 hunted vigorously and with better methods than formerly. The hunters 



