390 TESTIMONY 



destructive agents. To what extent do they occur and to what extent 

 do they effect the herd at large, are th^ points to be fairly considered, 

 and their consideration must not be influenced by any exaggeration 

 due to the sensibilities of the observer. Care should be and is at all 

 times exercised to avoid needless waste, but after giving the greatest 

 prominence possible to the injurious methods which are alleged to have 

 been employed at different times since the American occupancy of the 

 islands, my observations lead me to believe that the loss of life from 

 the causes indicated above would be but a fraction of one per cent of 

 the seals driven; and I also believe that it cannot, with any show of 

 justice, be made to account for or play other than a very insignificant 

 part in the diminution of seal life. After my observations of two sea- 

 sons I cannot believe that creatures which in their maturity possess 

 sufficient vitality to live for 80 or 90 days without food or water, and 

 which in their fcetal life can be cut from the mother and still live for 

 days, are as bachelor seals injured in their virility or to any extent dis- 

 abled physically by the driving to which they are subjected on the 

 Pribilof Islands. 



Joseph Stanley-Brown. 



Subscribed and sworn to bafore me this 16th day of December, 1892. 

 [seal.J Sevellon A. Brown, 



Notary Public. 



Deposition of James G. Swan, former inspector of customs, employee of 

 Indian Bureau and of Fish Commission of United states. 



State of Washington, 

 Jefferson County, ss: 



James (Jr. Swan, havingbeen duly sworn, deposes and says : I am seventy- 

 four yearsold, a residentof Port Town send, Washington, 

 Experience. an ^ ^y occupation a lawyer. I am also TJ. S. commis- 



sioner, Hawaian consul, commissioner for the State of Oregon, and a 

 notary public. I came to the Pacific Coast in 1850 and to Port Town- 

 send in 1859, where I have since held my residence the greater part of 

 the time to the present date. From 1802 to 1806 I wa,s employed in the 

 Indian Bureau of the Interior Department and stationed at Neah Bay, 

 and again from 1878 to 1881 I was inspector of customs at the same 

 place. In 1883 I also visited there in the employ of the Fish Commis- 

 sion. 



In 1880, at the request of the late Prof. Baird, of the Smithsonian 

 Institute at Washington, I made a careful study of the habits of the 

 fur-seal (Callorhinus Ursinus) found in the vicinity of Cape Flattery 

 and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the result of my observations is 

 embodied in the tenth FT. S. Census (Report of U. S. Fish and Fisher- 

 ies, Sec. 5, Vol. 2, page 293. Fur-seal of Cape Flattery and vicinity) 

 and in the report of the U. S. Fish Commission. (Bulletin of U. S. 

 Fish Commission, Vol. 3, pp. 201 to 207.) 



The observations upon which these reports are based were mostly 

 confined to the immediate vicinity of Cape Flattery, 

 e. a/so^ca^Fiattery aiif l I l ja( l at that time no opportunity for extended in 

 and coast of British quiry as to the pelagic habits of the animals. The 

 Colanibia - natural history of the seal herd of the Pribilof Islands, 



when upon or in the immediate vicinity of the land, had been minutely, 

 and I have no doubt accurately, described by n. W. Elliott in his mom 



