10 TESTIMONY 



Deposition of Joseph Stanley Broicn, geologist hi the TJ. S. Geological Sur- 

 vey and special agent of the Treasury. 



habits and rookeries. 



District of Columbia, 



City of Washington, ss: 

 Josepli Stan ley Brown, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am 30 

 years of age; am a citizen of the United States; reside 

 '^?-^fi"*'^®"^ "'' ii* Mentor, Oliio; am by profession a geologist, and as 

 spcLia dgen . sncb am emploj^ed in the U. S. Geological Siu'vey. 



In April, 1.S91, I was ordered by the honorable the Secretary of the 

 Interior, to whose direction the officers of the Geological Survey are 

 subject, to report to the honorable the Secretary of the Treasury per- 

 sonally for special service. This I did, and on the 27th of that month 

 I received from the latter a temporary appointment as special agent. 

 On May 4 I was given instructions to visit the Pribilof Islands, for 

 the iHirpose of studying the seal life found thereon, 

 Inst ructions. ^^j^j^ ^ vicw to procuriug full and accurate information, 



not only as to its present general condition, but also more specifically as 

 to any increaseor diminution of the seal herd that makes its home upon 

 the islands. I was further instructed, should I find that change had oc- 

 curred, to inquire carefully into its relative amount and the causes lead- 

 ing thereto. My duties were in no way connected with the administra- 

 tion of the islands, but I was left free to make as exhaustive and 

 comi)rehensive an examination of seal life on the islands as the time at 

 my disposal would permit. 



In accordance with my instructions I proceeded to San Francisco 

 ^ and on the 27th day of May sailed for Bering Sea on the 



ojageon xus . United States revenue steamer Rush. The Rush tir- 

 rived at St. George Island on June 9th and at St. Paul on the following- 

 day. I entered immediately upon the work assigned me and continued 

 it interruptedly until September 22, when the Rush returned to San 

 Francisco, arriving there on October 2. 



Of the one hundred and thirty days devoted to field investigation eighty 

 Sourcesof infovma- wcre givcu to the two islauds and. fifty spent at sea in 

 tion- making the voyage to and from San Francisco and in 



cruising in the vicinity of the Piibilof Islands. This cruising carried 

 me as far north as the island of St. Matthew and of Kunivak, and gave 

 me an opportunity to visit the villages of Akutan, Unalaska, Makushin, 

 Hashega, and Chernofsky, on the Aleutian chain. Thus by field inves- 

 tigation, by cruising, as well as by seeking information from those 

 qualified by their calling to give it, I sought to familiarize myself with 

 the seal question in all its phases. 

 In the prosecution of my investigations I deemed it desirable to pho- 

 tograph all the rookeries often from two positions; to 

 er^s ''*''^'^*'''^'"* '^""^'^ make a general topographic survey of both islands on 

 a scale of 1 mile to the inch and to prepare detailed 

 charts of the rookeries upon the unusually large scale of 204 feet to the 

 of iaiands i"^'l*' lu Carrying out this work I examined the entire 

 and"ch.arts*'of rookci- shorcliues of St. Paul aud St. George, and there is not 

 "'*'• an area of a mile square upon either that I have not 



traversed nor a square hundred feet upon a rookery (hat I have not re- 

 peatedly inspected. The close attentioiv to topographic forms demanded 

 in platting rookeries with so much minuteness and the 

 an?iuatiim.''**^ '^°"^''' carc required iu Selecting the best positions to secure 

 photographs inevitably drew me in close contact with 

 seal life and greatly increased my opportunities to study it. There was 



