RELATING TO PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 27 



lip 011 land anywLero on the Nortli Pacific or Alaskan coast, or islands 

 thereof, except on the seal islands. I have often con- 

 versed with masters, seamen, and hunters engaged in PiSf iluimfs.^ "° 

 hunting the fur seals, and their statements to me have 

 always been that the capture of a male se'al was a peiagic catch most- 

 rarity; that nearly all of their catch were cow seals ly preunant or wiik- 

 heavy with young, or those who had given birth to their ^°^ '"'^'^' 

 young on the islai'ds, and gone out to the fishing bank ^^^^^^ ^^^ ^.^ 

 "to feed, and that they lose a large proportion of those 

 kdled and wounded. I am decidedlv of the opinion 

 that the decrease in numbers of seals "in the North Pa- ^""''^ °* decrease. 

 cific and Bering Sea is owing to pelagic hunting, and that unless dis- 

 continued they will soon become so nearly extinct as to be worthless 

 for commercial purposes. 



I am not now, nor never have been, in the employ of the present 

 lessees of the seal islands. 



J. M. Hays. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 31st day of March, 1892. 

 [l. s.] Clement Bennett, 



Notary Public. 



Deposit io7i of M. A. ITeaJey, captain, JJ. S. Revenue Marine. 

 pribilof islands and pelagic sealing. 



State of California, 



City and County of San Francisco, ss: 

 Capt. M. A. Healey, having been duly sworn, deposes and says: I 

 am a citizen of the United States. I am now and have 

 bren lor the last twenty-five years an officer in the "^i'<'"eBce. 

 United States Revenue Marine Service, and have been on duty nearly 

 all the time in the waters of the North Pacific, Bering and Arctic 

 Seas. For the past six years I have been in command of the United 

 States revenue steamer Bear, prior to which time I had command of the 

 United States revenue steamer Coricin for six years; both of which 

 vessels were employed almost exclusively in navigating the waters of 

 Bering Sea, guarding the seal islands, and i^rotecting the seals found 

 in those waters from destruction by poaching vessels engaged in what 

 is known as pelngic sealing. My first voyage was made ^.^^^ voyage to 

 to the seal islands in 1869, and I have cruised anuii- Pribiiof islands in 

 ally for the last twelve years in the Alaskan waters -^^^^- 

 about the Pribiiof Islands up to the i^resent time. My official position 

 and the character of my emjiloyment, as well as natural inclination, has 

 given ine an oi)portiinity for familiarizing myself with 



ii 1 A. I- J.1 1- 1-1 j_ 1 li 1 1 -J. Experience. 



the character ot the lur-seal industry and the habits 

 of the seals, and has also brought ine in contact with many people en- 

 gaged in the hunting of the fur-seals, and of the general methods 

 employed in catching them. During my visits to the islands of St. 

 Paul and St. George for the last twenty years I have carefully noticed 

 that those islands weie visited by great herds of fur-seals during the 

 breeding season, and that although 1()(),(U)() male seals were taken annu- 

 ally at the islands by the lessees no perceptible dirai- ^^ diminution of 

 mition in their numbers was noticeable until within seals on islands until 

 the past few years when the killing of seals in the open within past tew years. 

 sea on the part of fishing vessels became i^revalent; since which time 



