RELATING TO FUR-SEALS AND SEALSKIN INDUSTRY. 371 



limit being about twenty-five miles off shore and the outer limit from 

 75 to 100. 



As this migration progresses, there is a bunching up of the herd, but 

 the seals travel independently and not in bands or schools. 



The migration route is from the Pribilof Islands through the passes 

 across to the coast, up the coast and across the northern sweep of the 

 North Pacific to the Aleutian Chain, and through the passes again to 

 the islands. 



There is no foundation in the statement that the Pribilof fur-seals 

 which migrate have a winter home off any coast. They appear at about 

 the same time off a long line of coast, reaching from California to Wash- 

 ington. When they are so found they are known always to be moving 

 northward up the coast. 



The herd, by reason of hunting at sea, has steadily diminished, and 

 such hunting will ultimately destroy the herd unless prohibited in the 

 North Pacific and Bering Sea, for, no matter how small the annual 

 catch may be, there is a possibility that the hunt will always be en- 

 couraged by the higher prices resulting from the decreased catch, as in 

 the case of the sea otter. 



C. L. Hooper. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 13th day of December, 1892. 



[SEAL.] SEVELLON A. BR OWN, 



Notary Fublic. 



Deposition of H. H. Mclntyre, superintendent of the Pribilof Islands. 



District op Columbia, 



City of Washington, ss. 



H. H. Mclntyre, of West Randolph, Vt., being duly sworn, deposes 

 and says: 



I have stated in former depositions my connection with the sealeries 

 of Alaska and opportunities for knowledge concerning them. 



When the breeding male seals first arrive upon the islands in the 

 spring they are much more timid and easily disturbed „. , e 



r-f ° j. t i -n n .-ii i^ t ,1 btaiupedes of seals. 



than at a later period, and might perhaps be then 

 driven from their chosen places upon the rookeries, but at a later date, 

 when their relation to their neighbors are fairly established and the 

 cows begin to arrive, no amount of force will dislodge them, and they 

 will die in defense of their harems rather than desert them. 



In June, 1872, 1 carried a photographer's camera near theEeef Rook- 

 ery on St. Paul Island, and while focusing the instrument with my head 

 under the black cloth, and the attention of my attendant was diverted, 

 two old bulls made a savage assault upon me, which I avoided by dodg- 

 ing and running. The camera was left where I had placed it and could 

 not be recovered until seal clubs had been sent for and one of the bulls 

 killed and the other knocked down and stunned. The throwing of stones 

 and noisy demonstrations had no efiect whatever upon them. This ex- 

 perience only emphasized what I have observed on many occasions upon 

 the islands. The female seals are more timid, and upon the near ap- 

 proach of man show signs of fear and generally move towards the water, 

 but their Might is resisted by the bulls, and before impregnation they 

 rarely succeed in escaping. After this occurs the discipline of the ha- 

 rem is relaxed and the females go and come at will. 



