4 TESTIMONY 



cial Treasury agent to go to the Pribilof Islands to investigate and to 

 report as to tlie habits of tlie fur seal, the condition of the islands, 

 and the most advantageous plan to adopt for the government and 

 management of the same. Pursuant to such appointment I pro- 

 ceeded to the Pacific coast and in March, 1809, I landed on St. Paul 

 Island and remained there until September of the same year. I tlien 



returned to Washington and laid my report before the 

 Reportto Treasury. Treasury Department. I again went back to the is- 

 lands in July, 1870, and remained until the ftill of 1871. Then in 

 April, 1872, I again arrived on St. Paul Island, this time in the capac- 

 ity of special agent of the Treasury Department in charge of the seal 

 islands. I was upon the islands as such agent from that time during 

 the sealing seasons from 1872 to 1877, inclusive, and passed three win- 

 ters there, namely, those of 1872, 1874, and 187G. Since the year 1877 

 I have never visited the seal islands, and have been in retirement at 

 Mattapoisett aforesaid. During these years I was upon the islands I 

 made a most careful study of seal life thereon, and examined and in- 

 quired of the natives in relation to the habits and former conditions of 

 the fur seals. 

 The Alaska fur seal breeds nowhere else except on the Pribilof Is- 

 lands. I took particular care in investigating the 

 biSf^fianas'^ "" ^" question of what became of the v'^eal herd while absent 



from the islands. My inquiries were made among the 

 Alaskan Indians, half breeds, Aleuts, and fur-traders along the north- 

 west coast and Aleutian Islands. One man, who had been a trapper 

 for many years along the coast, stated to me that in all his experience 

 he never knew of but one case where seals had hauled out on the Pa- 

 cific coast, and that was when four or five landed on Queen Charlotte 

 Island. This is the only case I ever heard of seals coming ashore at any 

 f ther place on the American side of the Pacific except the Pribilof 



Islands. Thesesealsareraigratory, leaving the islands 

 Misration. ^^ ^1^^ carly wiuter and returning again in the spring. 



Che Pribilof herd does not mingle with the herd located on the Com- 

 Prii.iiof and Com- i^iaiit^er Islauds. This I know from the fact that the 

 maiidor herds do not licrd gocs cast Ward after entering thcPacific Ocean, and 

 """s^*^- from questioning natives and half breeds, who had re- 



sided in Kamschatka as employes of the Kussian Fur Company, I learned 

 that the Commander herd on leaving their islands go southwestward 

 into the Okhotsk Sea and the wateis to the southward of it and winter 

 there. This fact was further verified by whalers who find them there in 

 the early spring. 



The Alaskan seals make their home on the Pribilof Islands because 



they need for the j)eriod they spend on land a pecu- 

 hoSf Aiasklmleai". li^i'ly cool, moist, and cloudy (jlimate, with very little 



sunshine or heavy i-ains. This peculiarity of climate is 

 only to be found on the Pribilof and Commander islands, and during 

 my long experience in the North Pacific and Bering Sea I never found 

 another locality which jjossessed these conditions so favorable to seal 

 bfe. Add to this fact the isolated condition of the seal islands and we 

 can readily see why the seals selected this home. 

 The puj) seal is born on the rocky shores of these islands, the mother 



evidently preferring a spot covered with broken lava 

 PrTbUof isiLr'^ °" rocks to the sand beaches. The birth takes place 



within two or three days after the female lands, and 

 often within a few hours. When borii the pup weighs from 4 to 5 

 pounds, and spends the first six weeks of its existence on laud. Dur- 



