RELATING TO PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 65 



the water and mucli less able to escape, because tbey are capable of re- 

 maining under water to escape for a very much less period of time than 

 when tliey are not heavy with young, or than tlie male seal would be; 

 and (2) because I have personally inspected skins taken upon the three 

 schooners Omrarrf, C«ro?i/;e, and T//or7i#o«, which skins k i ti 

 taken in Bering Sea were landed in TJnalaska and were catch otHhe^'ommi^, 

 then personally inspected by me in the month of May, [;"/;''""*■ '""""^ ^'""■"" 

 1887. The total number of skins so examined by me 

 was about 2,000, and of that number at least 80 ]3er cent were the skins 

 of females. I have also examined the skins taken by the United States 

 revenue cutter Rxsh liom one of tbe North Pacific Islands, where they 

 had been deposited by what is known as a poaching schooner and taken 

 to Unalaska, which numbered about 400 skins, and of that 400 skins at 

 least 80 per cent were the skins of female seals. I have also examined 

 the skins seized from the James Hamilton Lewis in the 

 year 1891, by the Eussian gunboat Aleute, numbering zfwiTJeizfdinim? 

 416, of which at least 90 per cent were the skins of fe- 

 male seals, and from my long observation of seals and seal skins, I am 

 able to tell the difference between the skin of a male and the skin of a 

 female seal. 



Prom my knowledge of the aquatic habits of the seal and the diffi- 

 culty of accurate shooting when the object is in the water, I am of the 

 opinion that a large number of seals are also killed by vessels engaged 

 in the business of taking seals in the open seas, which ^ggteofiife. 

 are not caught. I am unable to form any estimate of 

 the number of seals shot or speared from vessels, which are lost, but in 

 the last two or three years of my residence at St. George Island, in 

 taking 15,000 seals, I found, approximately, 3 pounds of lead, in the 

 form of slugs, bullets, and buckshot, which I personally took from the 

 bodies of male seals, souie of which were so badly wounded that they 

 would have died; and I have personally examined the log of the 

 schooner Angel Bollie, in wliich it was stated that the hunters from that 

 vessel got about one seal out of every ten seals shot at; also that on 

 one occasion they fired 250 rounds and got 20 seals; on another occa- 

 sion 100 cartridges and got 6 seals; and which log also stated that the 

 captain personally shot and killed 7 seals of which he got only one. 



Deponent further says that he thinks that the decrease in the num- 

 ber of seals found in the rookeries and the increase in the number of 

 dead pui)s are caused directly by the open-sea sealing commonly called 

 poaching and that the prohibition of such poaching is 

 necessary to the i^reservation of the herds, and that gafy™*'^*'"*''^ ueoes- 

 from what he has himself seen he thinks, if such 

 poaching be not x)rohibited the herds will be practically exterminated 

 within five years. One cause of destruction is raiding, j^^j^j^ 

 which has been done upon the shores of the islands. *' '°^' 

 A half dozen such raids are known to me personally; but, while it is 

 not possible for me to state with certainty the skins actually secured 

 by such raids, I believe that, altbough such raiding is detrimental, its 

 injurious effect as compared with the disastrous results of pelagic seal' 

 ing is insignificant. 



Thomas P. Morgan. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 5tli day of April, 1802. 

 [L. s.] Sevellon a. Brown, 



Notary Public in and for the District of Coluvihia, U. iS. A. 

 2716— VOL. II 5 



