RELATING TO PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 37 



around the Aleutian Islands as far west as Attn Island, and also along- 

 the coast of Siberia as far as Plover Bay. In all tliose years I have 

 met and talked with hunters, trappers, traders, and miners whose 

 business called tliem into Alaskan waters and I never 

 knew or heard tell of any fur-seals hauling- out on land pSf isfanTj.^ °" 

 to breed anywhere on the Alaskan coast or ivslands in 

 the North Paciftc or American waters of Bering Sea, excepting the 

 I'ribilof Islands. I have been employed on the seal islands since 1882, 

 and I have resided upon them continuously for ten years, and have a 

 ])ersonal knowledge of seal life as it exists on these islands and in the 

 waters snrrounding them, and there is less than one- 

 third as many seals coming to the islands last year tb?Xinteny^earr°' 

 than there was in 1882. The decrease in the number 

 of seals coming to the islands was first noticed and talked about in two 

 or three years after I first came to live here; and since 1887 the de- 

 crease has been very rapid. 



A carefnl inspection of the rookeries each returning season since 1887 

 showed that the cows were getting less and less, al- pewer femaiea. 

 though it was a rare thing to find a cow seal that did 

 not have a pup at her side. It was also during these years that dead 

 emaciated i)ups were first noticed on the rookeries, and 

 they increased in numbers until 1891, in which year, in ,,HhS pnps"'''"'^ 

 August and September, the rookeries were covered 

 with dead pups. I was i^resent when Dr. Akerly, the resident physi- 

 cian, made an examination of some of them and it was found that their 

 stomachs were empty, ami that they exhibited all the conditions of 

 starvation. 



I have been steward and cook at the Company house for the lessees 

 since 1882, and during the time when seals are killed 

 for skins or food I have daily prepared and cooked the Experience. 

 meat in various ways for the use of the table at which 

 all white people board who live on or come to the ^^'^n^.^®'^ ®®^^^ "°' 

 island, and such a thing as a diseased seal has never 

 been known. 



Edw'd Hughes. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me, an officer empowered to admin- 

 ister oaths under section 1976, Eevised Statutes of the United States, 

 this 8th day of June, 1892. At St. Paul Island, Alaska. 



Wm. H. Williams, 

 Treasury Agent in charge seal islands. 



Beiiositlon of Ahial P. Loud, special assistant Treasury agent on PribiloJ 



Islands. 



managejient and pelagic sealing. 



District of Columbia, 



City of Washington, ss: 

 Abial P. Loud, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am a resident 

 of Hampden, Me., and am 55 years of age. On April 4, 1885, 1 was 

 appointed special assistant Treasury agent for the 

 seal islands, and immediately started for the islands, xpe^ence. 

 arriving at the island of St, Paul on May 28 or .30. Spent that season 

 on St. Panl Island, and returned for the winter to the States, leaving 

 the islands on the 18th of Augnst. Went back again next spring, 

 arriving there in the latter part of May, and remained until August, 



