RELATING TO PRIBILOF ISLAND. 47 



islands from the feeding grounds; and further, because seals found in 

 the waters for 00 to 100 miles about said islands are much bolder and 

 easy of approach that in the open sea, through the proximity of their 

 island home. 



Therefore, in my judgment such a 30-mile zone would be of practi- 

 cally no use as a means of protection to seal life, because of the impossi- 

 bility to enforce such a law, and because of its inefficiency if enforced. 



(Interlineations herein in my handwriting were made before sign- 

 ing.) 



H. H. McIntyre. 



Snbscribed and sworn to before me this 5th day of A])ril, 1S92. 

 [l. s.] Sev-Ellon a. Brown, 



Notary Public in ami for the Butrict of Golumhia, U. S. A. 



Bejwsition of H. H. Mclntyre, Treasury agent, and super intendent for 

 the lessees of the Fribilof Islands. 



management and pelagic sealing. 



State op California, 



City and county of San Francisco, ss : 



Concerning the seal fisheries of Alaska 11. II. Mclntyre, of West Ean- 

 dolph,Vt., deposes and says, on oath : My first knowledge of the fur-seals 

 of Alaska was obtained when I w ent to that Territory in 1SG8, as special 

 Treasury agent, under instructions from the honorable Secretary, to report 

 what action was necessary to be taken by the Govern- 

 ment for x)reserving the seal rookeries and securing a Experience. 

 revenue therefrom. I arrived in Sitka in November, 18G8; remained 

 there a few days and went thence to Victoria, British Columbia, touch- 

 ing at all principal points between Sitka and Victoria, spending the 

 entire winter of 1868 and 1869 among the Indians and fur traders, 

 learning their traditions and customs, and noting their catches of fnrs 

 and manner of doing business. It came to my knowledge at that time 

 that a considerable number of fur-seals were being killed by the In- 

 dians, mostly by the use of sj^ears, in the waters adjacent to Van- 

 couver's and Queen Charlotte's islands. The total 

 catch obtained in this way amounted at this time, as I di.^nrpri^ to iseg.^"' 

 was told by the late United States consul, Francis, to 

 3,000 to 5,000 skins per annum. The consul further said that the catch 

 was chiefly females, many of which were pregnant. The Indians hunted 

 from dugout canoes, and could not go far from land. In the si)ring of 

 1869 I joined the United States revenue steamer Lincoln, and made the 

 summer's cruise in her of about four months, touching at many points 

 along the Alaska coast between Sitka and the most westerly island of 

 the Aleutian Archipelago, visiting the Pribilof group twice during the 

 season. 



The habits of the seals and manner of driving and killing them 

 during Russian occupation of the islands, and in 1868, after the trans- 

 fer of Alaska to the United States, were as carefully inquired into as 

 the limited time and opportunity would admit, and reported to the 

 Treasury Department under date of ISTovember 30, 1869 (House Ex. 

 Doc. 36, Forty-first Congress, second sesssion). This Affiant's report to 

 report, together with that of Special Agent Charles Treasury ^ on which 

 Bryant, Ibrmed the basis of subsequent legislation l^ltS. ^^^ ^^''^'' 

 providing for the leasing of the right to kill 100,000 



