120 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



were apparently deserted by their mothers. Fourth, the plump, 

 healthy appearance of all the pups I saw nursing. Fifth, the emaciated 

 condition of the dead. Sixth, the absence of food in the stomachs 

 and their contracted condition. Seventh, the absence of digested food 

 in the intestines. Eighth, the absence of even fecal matter, save in 

 small amounts in a few cases. Ninth, the absence of structural 

 changes in the viscera or other parts of the bodies to account for the 

 death 



J. O. S. AKERLY, Ph. B., M. D. 



Deposition of Henry W. Elliott. 



CITY OF WASHINGTON, 



District of Columbia, ss : 



Henry W. Elliott, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am a resi- 

 dent of Cleveland, Ohio, where I was born ; am 46 years of age, and 

 am a citizen of the United States. 



I first visited the Pribilof Islands in April, 1872, under the joint 

 appointment of the United States Treasury Department and of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and resided thereon until August, 1873. In 

 1874 I made another prolonged visit under the authority of a special 

 act of Congress. I visited the islands again briefly in 1876, and during 

 May, June, July, and August, under authority of a special act of Con- 

 gress, in 1890. During each visit I carefully studied the seal life on 

 these islands, and investigated the habits of the fur seals. In these 

 years I also visited the various islands in and around Bering Sea, the 

 leading ports and inhabited places on the mainland and islands of 

 Alaska in the Pacific Ocean, as also the ports of British Columbia and 

 the United States; witnessed the methods of pelagic sealing, con- 

 versed with many pelagic seal hunters, shipmasters, and fur traders, 

 and sought in all possible ways to acquaint myself fully with seal life 

 and the taking of seals. 



CLIMATIC CONDITIONS OF PRIBILOF ISLANDS, 



The Pribilof Islands possess a peculiar climate. There are but two 

 seasons, winter and summer; the former begins with November and 

 ends with April, the mean temperature being 20 to 26 F. above zero; 

 summer brings only a slight elevation in the temperature, between 15 

 or 20, so that the mean temperature of that season is 40 to 46. 

 With the opening of the summer, about the 1st of May, a cold, moist 

 fog settles down upon these islands, and is ever present until the latter 

 part of October. It is doubtless to this remarkably damp and sunless 

 atmosphere, together with the isolation of these islands, and the fact 

 that from their formation they are rapidly drained, that the seals seek 

 these islands to breed; in fact, it is necessary that such a sunless and 

 moist climate with a low temperature should exist for this species of 

 fur seal when on land, and it becomes highly important that they should 

 be so protected as to make their chosen home as free from unnecessary 

 molestation as possible. It is quite certain that the seal herd which 

 perennially frequents the Pribilof Islands has no other terrestrial haunt, 

 and now never lands, even temporarily, on any other terra fir ma in or 

 bounding the Pacific Ocean or Bering Sea. 



When all the climatic, topographical, and other facts are considered, 

 which are so remarkably favorable to seal life on the Pribilof Islands, 



