36 TESTIMONY 



but always well done. On our table it generally went by the name of 

 St. Paul or St. George muttou, respectively, and had its regular place 

 in our bill of fare, being far more preferable to " salt horse " and canned 

 stufis. 

 The methods employed in handling the drives are the same identi- 

 cally as of twenty years ago. The same methods were 

 ManagemeBt. obscrvcd wheu I first wcut to the islands, and were in 



vogue during the period tliat I referred to as an actual increase in seal 

 life, and have been continued up to the present times. There is noth- 

 Great increase in i^g different, cxccpt the cuormous increase of vessels 

 number of sealing aud huutcrs engaged in pelagic sealing in Bering Sea. 

 vessels and hunters. ^^^ ^^ . ggg .^^(_fi8g4 j^ ^.^s ouly au occasioual vcuture- 

 some vessel that came around and secured a few hundred skins and 

 thought itself lucky and cleared out, but since that time not even 

 the smallest craft is satisfied unless it secures its thousands of pelts, 

 regardless of sex. The indiscriminate slaughter of seals in the water 

 has so depleted their number, that the company is at 

 quS."*'*'^''°™^*"^^ present unable to get their quota of skins on the island 

 as allowed per contract with the Government, and is 

 restricted to such an insignificant number that it is not enough to sup- 

 ply food to the native population of the islands, 

 it is an indisputable fact that large portions of the breeding rookeries 

 f and hauling grounds are bare, where but a few years 



Decrease in area of ,,.ii,ii • i t i 



breeding and hauling ago uothiug but the happy, uoisy, and snarling seal 

 grounds. families could be seen. 



The first arrival of bulls is about the same time as formerly, but after 

 that they fill in very much slower, and the females for 



Arrival of buUs and the hist Ifew vcars havc been somewhat later in their ar- 



ccws. . , 



rival. 



The driving rookeries also necessarily have suffered, 



Decrease in com- ^s witucss the difference in the catch, a drop from 100,- 



panysauota. 000 to about 20,000 iu 1890. 



years and I am I made the conditions of seal life a careful study for 



flrndy of the opinion their decrease in number on the 



on^siands**/ *^®*""®''^^ Pribilof Islauds is due wholly and entirely to hunting 



aud kiUing them in the open sea. 



Wm. S. Hereford. 

 Subscribed and sworn to before me this 12th day of April, A. D. 

 1802. 

 [SEAL.] Clement Bennett, 



Notary Public. 



Deposition of Edward ITnghes, steward on vessels and in employ of the 



lessees. 



PELAGIC SEALING. 



Alaska, TJ. S. A., 



St. Paul Island, Pribilof Group, ss: 

 Edward Hughes, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am 52 years 

 of sige; and I was born in Wales. I am a citizen of the United States, 

 where I have resided for thirty-five years, of which twenty-eight years 

 have been spent in Alaska. For eighteen years I have 

 Experience. bccu cook or Steward on board vessels doing business 



in the North Pacific and in Bering Sea, along the en- 

 tire coast of Alaska from Sitka to Norton Sound, and all along and 



