24 TESTIMONY 



doubtless by tlie severity of tlie climate and decrease in the food supply. 

 Mi<rration They go southward, making their way tlirough the 



igra ion. passcs of the Aleutian chain. In latitude 50° or 



thereabouts, extending across the Pacific east and west, is a warm cur- 

 rent of about 70 or 80 miles in breadth; in this warm water are found 

 fish and crustaceans. This current sets eastward and is somewhat 

 quickened at the approach of spring in harmony with the monsoons of 

 its place of origin. In the spring and fall I have seen seals in these 

 warmer waters, but in August, when I once crossed the current, they 

 were absent. Undoubtedly the seals find there agreeable temi^erature 

 and sufficient food supply, and, following the eastward set of the cur- 

 rent and the migrations of the fish, find their way to the western coast 

 of the United States and, thence turn northwfird being influenced by 

 the bountiful food supply along the northwest coast, and finally by that 

 route return to their home upon the Pribilof Islands. 



I have had ample opi^ortunity to form an opinion in regard to the 

 effect upon the herd of the killing of female seals. The 

 femaie*s* ^^ ^''i^'^s female brings forth a single offspring annually, and 

 hence the repair of the loss by death is not rapid. It 

 is evident that the injury to the herd from the killing of a single female, 

 that is, the producer, is far greater than from the death of a male, as 

 the seal is polygamous in habit. The danger to the herd therefore is just 

 in proportion to the destruction of female life. Killing in the open 

 waters is peculiarly destructive to this animal. No 

 kUHmr^ criminate (jigcrimiuation of sex in the water is possible, the secur- 

 ing of the prey when killed is under the best of circum- 

 stances uncertain, and as the period of gestation is at least eleven 

 months, and of nursing three or four months, the death of a female at 

 any time means the destruction of two, herself and the foetus, or when 

 nursing of three, herself, the nursing puj), and the foetus. All killing 

 of females is a menace to the herd, and as soon as such killing reaches 

 the point, as it inevitably must if permitted to continue, where the 

 annual increase will not make good the yearly loss, then the destruction 

 of the herd will be equally rajiid and certain, regarded from a commer- 

 cial standpoint, though a few individuals might survive. 



Upon the amount of protection depends the safety of the seal herd in 

 the future. If protected only ui)on the Pribilof Islands extermination 

 will be rapid; if they are protected upon the islands and in the waters 

 of Bering Sea also the decrea.se will be slower, but ultimate extinction 

 will probably follow. To preserve them completely it 

 ^^Prohii)ition neces- ^^^ neccssary that they should be protected in all waters, 

 which they frequent at all times. Killing upon land 

 can be regulated and interference with the females rigidly i)rohibited, 

 but all killing at sea is indiscriminate and uncontrollable, and hence 

 fatal in its consequcMices if carried on to any serious extent. Kegarded 

 as a factor in tlie world's commerce, extinction means, and is here used 

 to mean, a diminution so great that the catch would not pay for hunt- 

 ing, without reference to the fact that a few scattered individuals may 

 long survive the general mass. 



Wm. H. Dall. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 9tli day of April, A. D. 1892. 

 [L. s,] John J. Malone, 



Notary Fiiblic, I). C. 



