RELATING TO PRIIilLOF ISLANDS. 89 



Deposition of Benjamin F. Scrihner^ assistant Treasury agent on the 

 Fribilof Islands. 



management. habits. pelagic sealing. 



District of Columbia, 



City of Washington, ss : 



Benjamin F. Scribuer, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am 66 

 years of age, and a pliarmaeist by profession. My res- „ .. 

 idence is New Albany, lud. In July, 1878, I was ap- ^i'''"""*"^- 

 pointed assistant Treasury agent for the seal islands, and arrived on 

 vsaid islands in May, 1879. I landed at St. George Island and remained 

 there continuously until August, 1880, except a ])art of the season of 

 1880 I spent on St. Paul Island. During this time I made a careful 

 study of seal life in connection with my official duties, and also for my 

 own satisfaction. 1 noticed during this period no perceptible increase 

 in the breeding rookeries on St. George. There was 

 always in both seasons a great sufficiency of adult ,„.fig™*'^ "* aduit 

 males to serve all the females coming to the island, and 

 I noticed each year a great number of idle, vigorous bulls behind the 

 breeding grounds who could not obtain consorts, and one of these extra 

 bulls always took the place of an old male unable 

 longer to be of ^lse for breeding purposes. It is my iju^ls'"^"'^' i'"^'*'^ ^^ 

 opinion that a bull is able to fertilize a hundred or 

 more cows, and this fact I base upon my observations of the habits and 

 conditions of the males while located on the rookeries. It is utterly 

 useless to endeavor to estimate the number of seals on the islands. One 

 might as well try to estimate a swarm of locusts, for they are constantly 

 in motion, never for an instant seeming to be at rest. The breeding- 

 rookeries can, of (iourse, be measured from year to year, and these 

 measurements would show an increase or decrease of seal life, for the 

 harems on the rookery are in close proximity, whether there are few or 

 a great many of them. 



The areas covered by these rookeries are very broken and uneven, on 

 account of the huge masses of rock which are distributed in unequal 

 quantities over the surface of every rookery. Therefore, to count the 

 seals on a given area and use that to estimate the whole number on the 

 rookery would be absurd. The estimates of the number of seals which 

 have been made heretofore are entirely unreliable in my opinion, and 

 no dependence or calculations should be based on such guesses. ISTever 

 while I was on St. George Island did I see a dead pup 

 on the rookeries, and I certainly should have noticed -^^f^^ '^'^^'^ vnpa iu 

 if there had been any number on the island. In my 

 judgment, and from my knowledge of the habits and. conditions of seal 

 life, I would state that a pup born in the water would certainly perish, 

 and I never saw during my experience a ])up land on the island with 

 the females when they arrived in the early summer, and I never heard 

 of such a case. I am confident that if a mother seal 

 was killed while absent from the island her pup would ^^"'"*^ "^ ^'^'"'''^'^• 

 die of starvation in a few days, for the female seal will not suckle any 

 ])up but her own. While on St. George Island I attended nearly every 

 killing of the bachelor seals (which are the ones taken for their skins) 

 and also many drives. I very frequently went over . . 

 the ground where a drive had been made, after such ''''""■ 

 had taken place. I became familar with the manner of driving, hand- 

 ling, and killing the seals by the natives, and I con- ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ 

 sider the methods employed by them to be practically 



