RELATING TO PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 71 



Deposition of Jacob H. 31otiltoii, assistant TirasHry agoit on the Prlbilof 



Islands. 



management, habits, and pelagic sealing. 



District of Columbia, 



City of Washington, ss': 

 Jacob H. Moulton, of Bowdoinham, Me., being duly sworn, deposes 

 and says : I am 50 years of age, and my occupation is 

 farming. From 1877 to 1885 I was first assistant Experience. 

 Treasury agent on tlie seal islands. I arrived on St. 

 George Island May 21, 1877, and left the islands in the fall of 1881. I 

 spent four summers on St. George Island, and one winter, from 1877 

 to 1881, and four summers and four Avinters on St. Paul Island, from 

 1881 to 1881. Each season 1 made careful examination of the rookeries 

 on tlie island wliere I then was located, in couuectiou witli my official 

 duties, and 1 also made some study of the life and habits of the seal. 

 While I was on St. George Island there was a percepti- j^^^. 

 ble increase in the number of seals, there being more Gcwge^ Mand from 

 in 1881 than at anytime previous while I was there, i^^'^toissi. 

 Wiiile on St. Paul Island I do not think the number of seals increased, 

 and in the last year (1881) I think there was a slight ^ 



1 TA • XI J.T 1 n Decrease on St. Paul 



decrease. JJuring these years there was always a suf- Lsiandinissi. sutti- 

 ficiency of male seals for breeding purposes, and in cieucy of bniis. 

 every year I saw great numbers of idle, vigorous bulls about and back 

 of the breeding grounds, which were unable to obtain females. 



I believe that it is utterly impossible to even approximately estimate 

 the number of seals which resort to these islands. I 

 do not mean that it is impossible to measure the breed- mate^numbe^r o? seals 

 ing rookeries, for that can be done by the use of sur- resorting to islands. 

 veyors' instruments with practical accuracy, but after the measurements 

 are made, it is impossible to estimate the number of seals contained in 

 these areas, the ground being covered with broken rocks of all sizes, 

 some weighing over a ton, between which the seals lie, so that where 

 the large rocks are not so thick there will be a greater number of seals; 

 thus all over the rookeries the density of seal life varies, and besides 

 this the seals are constantly in motion, the females coming from and 

 going to the water. I do not believe any estimate of the number of 

 seals on the islands heretofore made can be relied upon at all, as there 

 may in reality be twice as many seals as estimated, or half as many. 

 But it is possible to determine by close observation ^. .,, 



ftZ 1 J.1 J.1 1 • • Possible to deter- 



•om year to year whether the seals are increasing or mine an increase or 



decreasing, because the seals crowd together in the '^'-''^^^'^^^^■ 



same manner, whether there are a few or a great number, and as they 



increase the rookeries necessarily extend. 



While on St. George Island there were practically no dead pups on 

 the rookeries. I do not think I saw during any one 

 season nnn-e than a dozen. On St. Paul Island I never ^'"'""^ ^"p^- 

 saw any dead pups to amount to anything until 1881, and then the 

 number was quite noticeable. These latter pups I examined, and they 

 seemed to be very much emaciated. In my opinion they died of starva- 

 tion, caused by the mothers having been* shot while absent from the 

 islands feeding. Another cause of their starving is 

 because a cow refuses to give suck to any pup but her own ","]'!""''* ""''^'"'' 

 own, and slie recognizes her offspring by its cry, dis- 

 tinguishing its voice from that of hundreds of others which are con- 



