RELATING TO FUR-SEALS AND SEALSKIN INDUSTRY. 375 



On one of the boats of a seized schooner there were the carcasses of 

 13 seals. I was present while these were being skinned 

 on our steamer's (the Koine's) deck; all of them were Nursing females. 

 nursing females, and the deck was flooded with milk 

 when the skins were being removed. All the captains of these seized 

 vessels informed me that they took a great many seals 200 or more 

 miles froin the islands, and it is my belief that the female seals go as 

 far as that from the rookeries to feed. The captains also knew and 

 admitted they were getting mostly females. The captain of the Maria 

 told me he lost two or three out of five wounded or killed. 



During the last year or two there has been an enormous decrease in 

 the number of seals on Copper Island; on Bering 

 Island the decrease was not so marked. The seals on Decrease - 

 the Copper Island rookeries feed mainly to the east and southeast 

 of the island, while those on Bering Island feed to the northwest and 

 west thereof, where the sealing schooners have not gone so much as 

 yet; the two islands are about thirty (30) miles apart. All the sealing 

 schooners seized were to the south or southeast of Copper Island ex- 

 cept one, which was seized to the northwest of Bering Island. I 

 noticed one rookery in particular on Copper Island which two years 

 ago was covered with breeding seals and which now is bare. No one 

 on the islands doubts that the sealing schooners have done it. The 

 natives have become greatly alarmed and they bewail the condition ot 

 the rookeries, claiming they will starve if the seals continue to decrease. 

 This great decrease is noticeable in the female seals; there are enough 

 vigorous male seals to serve all the females coming to the islands. The 

 natives have reported in the last two years that the number of females 

 to a bull is growing less. This is the natural result of the sealers kill- 

 ing principally females. I am convinced that unless sea-sealing is ab- 

 solutely prohibited the Commander seal herd will become practically 

 exterminated. 



Among the seal-skins taken from one of the vessels seized were some 

 which were lighter in color and different in shape from 

 the rest of the catch. Snigerof, the native who has Herdsdonot min g Je - 

 been on the Pribilof Islands, at once pointed these out to me and said 

 they were Pribilof seals. I spoke to the captain of the vessel about 

 them, and he told me that those skins came from the eastern side of 

 Bering Sea and were skins of the Pribilof seal herd. I am, therefore, 

 positive there is a marked difference in the two seal herds and that they 

 do not intermingle. 



I have already stated that the seized vessels had on board about 2,700 

 skins. These were confiscated by the Government and 

 taken to Petropaulovski. They were there sold at auc- ca £ P to Lo\iXn? lagi ° 

 tion and I purchased 1,124 of them; 1,028 of them were 

 held by the Government for its own account. The two lots above-men- 

 tioned, namely, that purchased for the Russian Government, were placed 

 in my charge at Petropaulovski and were brought to San Francisco by 

 me upon the steamer Kotik the chartered vessel of the Russian Seal- 

 skin Company. At San Francisco I was present when these two lots 

 were shipped to Alfred Fraser, of New York, a member of the firm of 

 C. M. Lampson & Company, for transshipment to London, in casks 

 which were marked and numbered as follows: 



The casks containing the first \oi were numbered 22 to 40 and marked 

 " R. S. S. Co., A." 



The casks containing the second lot were numbered 1 to 21 and were 

 marked '< R. S. S. Co., G.» 



