278 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



Fur seals have decreased very rapidly during the last five years, and 

 we believe it is due to the large number of vessels engaged in bunting 

 them at sea. (Vassili Ohichinoff.) 



Have noticed the seal are decreasing very fast the last four years; 

 too many schooners are hunting them in the open waters of the Pacific 

 Ocean and Bering Sea. (Chin-koo-tin.) 



The last five years fur seal has been growing very scarce, and it is 

 hard to get any now. There are too many white men with schooners 

 hunting them off Dixons Entrance, and unless it is stopped the seal 

 will be all gone. (William Clark.) 



Seals are now very scarce and wild along the coast. I believe the 

 cause of this is that white hunters have been hunting them so much 

 with guns. (James Claplanhoo.) 



Seals used to be very plentiful, and I never noticed any decrease in 

 their number until white hunters commenced coming here and killing 

 them with guns, about six or seven years ago; since that they have 

 decreased very rapidly and have got very shy. Our tribe used to 

 have no difficulty in catching 8,000 to 10,000 seals and now we can 

 not get a thousand. (Circus Jim.) 



I have been out sealing on the coast this spring in a schooner that 

 carried 10 canoes, with two hunters to each canoe. We were out three 

 days and caught 5 seals. If we had been out that long six or eight 

 years ago with the same crew we would have taken between (JO and 100 

 seals. Seals are wild and shy now, and have become very scarce. I 

 think the reason for this is that they have been hunted so much by 

 white hunters who use firearms. (Jeff. Davis.) 



Some years ago the fur seal were plenty off the islands, but since the 

 schooners have hunted them they are nearly all gone, and it is hard for 

 the Indians of this village to get any. (Eshon .) 



Seals are not so plentiful as they were a few years ago. They began 

 to decrease about five or six years ago. A good many years ago 1 used 

 to capture seals in the Straits of San Juan de Fuca, but of late 3 T ears, 

 since so many schooners and white men have come around here shoot- 

 ing with guns, only a few come in here and we do not hunt in the 

 Straits any more. I used to catch 40 or 50 seals in one day, and now 

 if I get 6 or 7 I would have great luck. I have to go a long distance 

 to get seals now. Seals are wild and afraid of an Indian. They have 

 become so since the white men and the trader began to shoot them with 

 shotguns and rifles. In a short time there will be no seals left for the 

 Indian to kill with a spear. (Ellabush.) 



Fur seals were formerly much more numerous than of late years, and 

 are each year becoming constantly scarcer. I believe this decrease is 

 due to the number of vessels which are engaged in hunting them at 

 sea. (Vassili Feodor.) 



When I was a young man there were lots of seals around Queen 

 Charlotte Islands, but now they have become scarce. The last few 

 times I was out after them I did not see a seal. They have been grow- 

 ing scarcer every year since the white man began hunting them in 

 schooners. (Frank.) 



Fur seal are not as plenty as they used to be, and it is hard for the 

 Indians to catch any. I think there are too many white men in 

 schooners hunting seals around Dixons Entrance. (Chief Frank.) 



