64 TESTIMONY 



jected, namely, undersized skins, i. e., the skins of young seals. Prior 



to 1887 we had endeavored to take no skins weighing 

 to^ompfetrquotf '°^ ^^ss thau 8 pounds, but in order to make up our quota 



in the last mentioned year we had to take skins weigh- 

 ing as little as 0^ jjounds to the number of several thousand. 



In the years 1885, 1880, and 1887, my attention was attracted not 



only to a diminntiou in tlie number of killable seals appearing on the 



Decrease since 1885 isl^^^*^^ ^^^^ to a decrease iu the females as well. Up to 



the year 1881, the breeding space in the rookeries had 

 increased, and from that year down to 1887, when I left the island, the 



acreage covered by the rookeries which were occupied 

 griSTp toYsff*"^ by seals (ionstantly diminished. Naturally the cause 



of this diminution was a matter of interest and inquiry. 

 It was not evident that it was from causes incident to the taking of 

 seals upon the island. The greatest care was exercised in the driving; 

 j^^.^.^^ under precisely similar conditions the herd had iu- 



"^"'^' creased in former years; the number of skins origi- 



nally apportioned to St. George Island were reduced at an early date, 

 and only increased in proportion to the rookeries' expansion. No dis- 

 turbance of the rookeries Avas permitted, even the presence of dogs and 

 use of lirearms being prohibited during the presence of the seals. But 

 facts came under my observation that soon led me to what I believe to be 

 the true canse of destruction. For instance, during the period of my 

 residence on St. George Island, down to the year 1881, there were always 

 ^^^j ^^ ^ a number of dead pups, the number of which I can not 



pups. ^^^^ exactly, as it varied from year to year, and was 



dependent upon accidents or the destructiveness of storms. Young- 

 seals do not know how to swim from birth, nor do they learn how for 

 six weeks or two months after birth, and therefore are at the mercy of 

 the waves during stormy weather. But from the year 1884 down to the 

 ]teriod when I left St. George Island, there was a marked increase in 

 the number of dead pup seals, amounting, perhaps, to a trebling of the 

 numbers observed in former years, so that I would estimate the number 

 of dead pups in the year 1887 at about five or seven thousand as a 

 maximum. 



I also noticed during my last two or three years, among the number 

 of dead pups, an increase of at least 70 per cent of those which were 

 emaciated and i)oor, and in my judgment they died Horn want of nour- 

 ishment, their mothers having been killed while away from the island 

 feeding, because it is a fact that pups drowned or killed by accidents 

 were almost invariably fat. Learning further, through the London 

 sales, of the increase in the pelagic sealing, it became my firm convic- 

 tion that the constant increase in the number of dead pups and the 

 decrease in the number of marketable seals and breeding females found 

 on the islands during the years 1885, 1886, and 1887 were caused by 

 the destruction of female seals iu the open sea, either before or after 



giving birth to the pups. The mother seals go to feed- 

 seSs wlSie^feeto^g^"" "^^ grouuds distant from the islands, and I can only 



account for the number of starved pups by supposing 

 that their mothers are killed while feeding. 



As I understand the fact to be, most of the seals killed in the open 



sea are females. My reason for this conclusion are (1) 

 in^ealirefemaie^'"'''^ t^^^t from my knowledge of the seal, I know that the 



female when heavy with young, as they are during the 

 early part of the season when on their way to the rookeries where they 

 are delivered during the months of June and July, are much heavier in 



