ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 185 



fact to the Secretary of the Treasury, and advised the taking of a less 

 number of skins the following year. Pursuant to such report the Gov- 

 ernment fixed the number to be taken as 00,000, and further ordered 

 that all killing of seals upon the islands should stop after the 20th day 

 of July. I was further ordered to notify the natives upon the Aleutian 

 Islands that all killing of seals while coming from or going to the seal 

 islands was prohibited. These rules and regulations went into effect 

 in 1890, and pursuant thereto I posted notices for the natives at various 

 points along the Aleutian chain, and saw that the orders in relation to 

 the time of killing and number allowed to be killed were executed upon 

 the islands. As a result of the enforcement of these regulations, the 

 lessees were unable to take more than 21,238 seals of the killable age 

 of irom 1 to 5 years during the season of 1890, so great had been the 

 decrease of seal life in one year, and it would have been impossible to 

 obtain 60,000 skins even if the time had been unrestricted. (Charles 

 J. Goff.) 



The Table A, appended to this affidavit, shows how great has been 

 the decrease on St. Paul Island's hauling grounds, bearing in mind the 

 fact that the driving and killing were done by the same persons as in 

 former years, and were as diligently carried on, the weather being as 

 favorable as in 1889 for seal driving. I believe that the sole causes of 

 the decrease is pelagic sealing, which, from reliable information, I under- 

 stand to have increased greatly since 1884 or 1885. Another fact I 

 have gained from reliable sources is that the great majority of the seals 

 taken in the open sea are pregnant females or females in milk. It is 

 an unquestionable fact that the killing of these females destroys the 

 pups they are carrying or nursing. The result is, that this destruction 

 of pups takes about equally from the male and female increase of the 

 herd, and when so many male pups are killed in this manner, besides 

 the 300,000 taken on the islands, it necessarily affects the number of 

 killable seals. In 1889 this drain upon male seal life showed itself on the 

 islands, and this, in my opinion, accounts for the necessity of the lessees 

 taking so many young seals that year to fill out their quota. As soon 

 as the effects of pelagic sealing were noticed by me upon the islands 

 I reported the same, and the Government at once took steps to limit 

 the killing upon the islands, so that the rookeries might have an oppor- 

 tunity to increase their numbers to their former condition; but it will 

 be impossible to repair the depletion if pelagic sealing continues. I 

 have no doubt, as I reported ? that the taking of 100,000 skins in 1889 

 affected the male life on the islands and cut into the reserve o male 

 seals necessary to preserve annually for breeding purposes in the 

 future, but this fact did not become evident until it was too late to 

 repair the fault that year. Except for the numbers destroyed by pelagic 

 sealing in the years previous to 1889 the hauling grounds would not 

 have been so depleted, and the taking of 100,000 male seals would not 

 have impaired the reserve for breeding purposes or diminished to any 

 extent the seal life on the Pribilof Islands. Even in this diminished 

 state of the rookeries in 1889 I carefully observed that in the majority 

 of cases the 4 and 5 year old males were allowed to drop out of a 

 "drive" before the bachelors had been driven any distance from the 

 hauling grounds. These seals were let go for the sole purpose of sup- 

 plying sufficient future breeders. (Charles J. Goff.) 



I believe there has been a great decrease in the numbers of the fur- 

 seal species. I do not believe that there are now one tenth as many 

 fur seals frequenting the Pribilof Islands as there were ten. years ago. 



