22 TESTIMONY 



Liinging- forth her young. There were, while I was on the islands, 



stringent rules enforced on the islands as to the use of firearms, making 



noises, approacliing- the rookeries, etc. In fact every precaution was 



taken that the seals on the islands might not be frightened. Because 



of the manner of killing seals on the islands, the precautions taken to 



kill only males of from 2 to 5 years, and the careful 



kiiifu''*'on*isiand8. ^^ limitation of the numbers taken, I am fully convinced 



1 lugon . . that the taking of seals on the Pribilof Islands could 



never affect the inimbers of the seal herd or deplete the rookeries. In 



my judgment pelagic seal hunting should be absolutely 



Prohibition of pe- })rohibited botli iu Bering Sea and the North Pacific. 



iafy. '"''"''^ """"'" I" case tliere is not such ])rohibition the Pribilof seal 



* herd will be either exterminated iu a very short time or 



else the few which escape from the indiscriminate slaughter of pelagic 



hunters will be driven from the Pribilof Islands. 



Stephen N. Buynitsky. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 28th day of March, 1892. 

 [L, s.] Sevellon a. Brown, 



Notary Public in and for the District of Columbia^ U. 8. A. 



Deposition of William ReaJey Dall, biologist and paleontologist in U. S. 

 Geological Survey. 



pelagic sealing and pribilof rookeries. 



District of Columbia, 



City of Washington, ss: 



William Healey Dall, of Washington, aforesaid, being duly sworn, 



deposes and says: That in connection with my scien- 



Experience. ^-^^ studics at Cauibrid ge, Mass., I devoted nearly three 



years to the study of biology, anatomy, and medicine; that since 



completing my studies with Prof. Louis Agassiz at Cambridge, in the 



year 18G3, I have been engaged in scientific work, and am now a 



^. .^ , ,, , 1 paleontologist iu the U. S. Geological Survey. I first 



Visited Alaska and -"^ . ., , -p^ *. ^ • xi ^lo,^- i 



Bering Sea in 1865, visitcd Bering Sea IU the summer ot IbOo as a member 

 i^*^^- of the scientific cori^s of the Western Union Telegraph 



expedition. Visited the Aleutian Islands and went to St. Michael, 

 passing near the Pribilof group. In the sjuing of 18GG again went 

 to northern Alaska, in the same capacity, and remained there until the 

 fall of 18G8. In 18G7 the aforesaid expt'dition was abandoned, but 1 

 remained in the country in order to continue my scientific investiga- 

 tions, wintering on the mainland. In the fall of 18G8 I made my way 

 back to San Francisco on the schooner Francis Steele, owned by the 

 Pioneer American Pur Comi)any, which had a station 

 T 7''i*?'^i8ri ^''"''"'' «t St. George Island, where we stopped on our way 



Island in IbOS. p ' -i ^ i i • ,■ 



soiTth, and thus gave me a clmnce to observe seal lile 

 for several weeks. In 1871 I joined the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Sur- 

 vey for the purpose of carrying out a proposed survey 

 froi'iti^Ti'to I'su'""''' o^ t''^^ Aleutian chain of islands. I was thus engaged 

 from the summer of 1871 to the end of the season of 

 1874, and during the winter of 1871-72 wintered at Unalaska. During 

 this period had opportunity to familiarize myself with aquatic seal life, 

 and in 1874 made a reconnoissance survey of the Pribi- 

 isSnTirLf "''"'''' •*»^' I'^liMHls, which affoKled me an additional opportu- 

 nity to observe seal life on the rookeries. 



