74 TESTIMONY 



eries are fullest and at their best — and I carefully noted tlieir condition 

 and the number of seals; the number of cows to the family, syid the 

 number of idle, vigorous bulls u]V)n each rookery. 



From the experience gained and observations made during- three 

 killing seasons, from the information gleaned from men who have de- 

 voted their lives to the practical side of the seal question, and from tlie 

 books and reports in the Government offices on the islands, I am able 

 to say that, in my opinion, there is only one great cause 

 ( eciease. ^^. ^^^^ decrease of the fur-seal, and that is the kilhng of 

 the females by pelagic hunting. During my observations in 1890, 1 was 

 led to believe that the decrease was partly due to the lack of bulls on 

 the breeding rookeries, and I so reported to Agent Goff; l)ut after 

 thoroughly investigating the subject the next year by dail}^ visits to 

 the breeding grounds of the several rookeries, where I saw nearly every 

 cow with a pup by her side : and hundreds of vigorous bulls without 

 any cows, I came to the conclusion that there was no 

 o scarci y o us. ^j,^^^|^ |^ ^^^ thcory, and that it was the cows that Avere 

 scarce and steadily decreasing. Had I had a doubt, it would have 

 been dispelled when I was informed that the combined 

 outTt'ser "'''™*"^ fleets had warned ninety-one poaching schooners out 

 of Bering Sea before August 25, 1891, and that each 

 of the schooners had sealskins on board, whicli, in the aggregate, 

 Niuet er cent of ni^^bsred about 30,000, of which 90 per cent were 

 skiDa^o^^ board ite- fouud to be fcmalcs. On the 19th of August, 1891, I 

 ™"^*^**- saw the young j)ups lying dead upon the rookeries of 



St. Paul, and I estimated their number to be not less than 30,000; and 

 jj^^^ ^^^ ^ they had died from starvation, their mothers having 



pups. been killed at the feeding grounds by pelagic hunters. 



Joseph Murray. 



District of Columbia, 



City of Wa.sJiinoton, ss: 

 Subscribed and sworn to before me this 19th day of March, 1892. 



Chas, L. Hucihes, 



Notary Fuhlic. 



Deposition of 8. Tx. Kcttleton, Treasury agent on the PrihUof Islands. 



HABITS; pelagic SEALING. 



S. R. Nettleton, being first duly sworn, deposes as follows: My place 

 of residence since May, 1891, has been Seattle., Wasliin gtou. For a period 

 of nineteen years prior to that date I was a resident of the State 

 of Minnesota. My occupation was that of a real estate and inACst- 

 ment broker. In the autumn of 1889 1 went to. the island of St. I'aul, 

 one of the Pribilof group, as a special agent of the Treasury Dej)art- 

 ment. In August, 1890, I returned to the States and stayed until the 

 spring of 1891, when I returned to said island of St. Paul. I remained 

 there during the months of June and July of that} year, and was 

 then transl 

 June, 1892. 



In discharge of my duties as Treasury agent I made such obserA^- 

 . tions as could be taken from the breeding rookeries 



xptueucc. ^^^ hauling grounds on the islands, and in the waters 



immediately adjacent thereto, and which enable me to mak<3 the follow- 



