274 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILO.F ISLANDS. 



are killing those pups off. A seal has not got a chance to go to work 

 and increase. 



Q. The mother seals? A. Yes, sir. (Alexander McLean.) 



Q. Have you noticed any decrease in the quantity of animals in the 

 last few years? A. Yes, sir. 



Q. To what do you attribute the cause? A. Killing off the females. 

 (Daniel McLean.) 



I have given up the sealing business because the slaughtering of the 

 female seals is making them so scarce that it does not pay. (James 

 Maloy.) 



I think seals are not as plentiful as they used to be; caused. I think, 

 by the indiscriminate killing of females with pup. (G. B. Miner.) 



Q. To what do you attribute that decrease? A. From the killing of 

 seals, both by hunters and others. (Frank Morreau.) 



Deponent further says that he thinks that the decrease in the num- 

 ber of seals found in the rookeries and the increase in the number of 

 dead pups are caused directly by the open sealing in the sea, commonly 

 called poaching. (T. F. Morgan.) 



I am not able to say whether the seal herd is decreasing, but it is 

 reasonable to suppose that where they are hunted and harassed at all 

 times by so many hunters they are sure to be driven from their usual 

 haunts, if not totally destroyed. (Nelson T. Oliver.) 



Seals were not as plentiful in 1886 as they were in 1885. I think the 

 principal cause of that decrease is on account of killing the females in 

 the water, and also through their getting shy by being chased by the 

 boats. (Niles Nelson.) 



Since the use of rifles and shotguns has become common seals are 

 much less in numbers and are more shy and timid. (William Parker.) 



Seals are not near as plentiful as when I went out in 1888, and I 

 believe the decrease is due to their being hunted so much with shot- 

 guns and rifles. (Edwin P. Porter.) 



I know that the seals are rapidly decreasing, and I believe it is caused 

 by killing females in the water. (Adolphus Sayers.) 



I took very great interest in the seals, because I used to hunt them 

 myself, and I noticed a great decrease in the number of seals from what 

 there was formerly, when I was on sealing voyages. It was, in fact, so 

 marked that I called the captain's attention to it, saying that we had 

 seen very few seals. They have been getting scarcer every year since 

 I have been going to Bering Sea, and if something is not done right 

 away to protect them there will be no more seals in these waters. I 

 know as a fact that they are killing them indiscriminately, and all the 

 hunters care about it is to get a skin. I know something about it, as I 

 have been sailing from this coast up along those waters for nineteen 

 years, and, as I said before, I paid particular attention to them, and I 

 firmly believe if they allow the killing in the sea to go on as they are 

 now doing it will only be a question of a few years before there will not 

 be enough to pay anyone to hunt them. (James Sloan.) 



I think the seals are decreasing in number all the time, because there 

 are more vessels out hunting after them and are killing off the female 

 seals. (Cyrus Stepherns.) 





