40 , TESTIMONY 



I>ej)osition of H. S. BIcIntyre, Treasury agent., and superintendent for the 

 lessees of the Pribilof Islands. 



HABITS. 



District of Columbia, 

 City of Washington., ss : 



n. H. Mcliityre, of Randolph, Orange County, Vt., on being duly 

 sworn, deposes and says, concerning- the fur seals of Alaska, and mat- 

 ters relative thereto, as follows: I am a native of Vermont, 48 years 

 . old. Commissioner from Vermont to the World's Co- 



xperience. himbiau Expositiou of 1893, etc. In the years 1868 



and 1869 I was special United States Treasury agent, assigned to duty 

 in Alaska, and from 1870 to 1889, inclusive, superintendent of the seal 

 fisheries of Alaska for the lessees. I spent ten months as special 

 Treasury agent from November, 18(38, to August, 1869, in inquiry con- 

 cerning the fur-seal fisheries then recently acquired from Russia, with 

 a view to advising the Government of the United States what dispo- 

 sition should be made of them, and to this end visited all the principal 

 iwints along the northwest coast of the American continent from Van- 

 couver's Island to the most westerly island of the Aleutian Archipel- 

 ago, the Pribilof group, and points along the Bering Sea coast. 



As superintendent of the seal fisheries I visited the seal islands twice 

 in the summer of 1870; remained constantly thereon from April, 1871, 

 until September, 1872, and thereafter went to the islands every summer 

 from 1873 until 1889, inclusive, excepting 1883, 1884, and 1885. I usu- 

 ally remained on the islands about four months, from May until August, 

 in each season, supervising the annual seal catch, examining tlie condi- 

 tions of seal life, studying the habits of the seals, and, in brief, doing 

 such work as the interests of the lessees seemed to demand. I also 

 went twice to London, first in 1872 and again in 1886, to attend the fur- 

 seal trade sales with a view to becoming more thoroughly acquainted 

 with the demands of the sealskin market. My duties as such special 

 Treasury agent and superintendent demanded and received my atten- 

 tion to every detail of seal life and its relation to commerce. In the exe- 

 cution of these duties I was constantly aided by able, intelligent assist- 

 ants and native seal hunters, whose daily observations and reports were 

 from time to time communicated to me. 



Based upon my own observation and experience, and corroborated 

 by those of my assistants and hunters, I deduce the following facts in 

 regard to the habits of the seals : 



The Alaska fur-seals breed only on the islands of St. Paul and St. 

 Alaskan fur-seal Gcorgc, of the PribilofgToup iu Bering Sca. They have 

 i.reeds only on Pribi- bccu uusuccessfully Searched for at every other point 

 !of Islands. ^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ j^ 1372 Captain Archimandritoff spent 



the greater part of the summer in a schooner looking for a reef or island 

 alleged to lie to the southward of Ounalaska. His cruise was fruit- 

 less, not only at this point, but at several others where he was led by 

 some legendary tale or delusive dream to expect to find 

 fhim elsewhere. ^°'" ^^^^ rookerics. Siucc that date the coast has been ex- 

 plored at every point, and it may be safely stated as a 

 fact that no other ro ikeries exist on the northwest coast of the North 

 American continent or the islands adjacent thereto. 



The seals are migratory and return, as I believe, after migration to 

 the vicinity and probably to the ground or rookery on 



igraory. whlch they were born. I have in several cases seen a 



certain seal with his harem during a number of consecutive seasons in 



