90 TESTIMONY 



perfect, and no imi)rovemeut can be made on suclnnetliods. The great- 

 est care is always taken not to heat the seals in driving them, and in 

 case the sun came out during a drive the seals were allowed to return 

 to the sea. 



Only two females were ever killed, to my knowledge, by the natives 



in driving. I then made every effort to discover who 

 isiami^!'"'^^' ^'^'""' "" 1'^^*^ killed them, my object being to thoroughly impress 



on the minds of the natives and the agents of the 



lessees that the accident must not occur again. It was a very rare oc- 



,.. currence for a seal to be killed by overdriving. I never 



No overdriving. , to i i • • '• t i i • • 



saw or heard of a seal being injured by driving or re- 

 driving, and I am certain that the reproductive organs of a seal were 

 never injured by any such means. The idea that the virility of a male 

 seal was impaired by driving or redriving is preposterous, for a male 

 sealAvhich can survive fasting for three months, and the serious wounds 

 and violent exertions of conflicts on the rookeries, besides serving so 

 many females, could stand almost any amount of driving while a bach- 

 elor. While I was on the islands there Avere no raids on the rookeries, 

 and seal life was never depleted at that time by such means. The seal 

 herd which frequents St. Paul and St. George can be 

 ea^y"*^''^"'" ueces- ^j^j^ preserved, in my opinion, by preventing all kill- 

 ing of seals excei)t on the islands, where judicious 

 regulations can be enforced as to the number, sex, age, and conditions 

 of the seals to be taken,- otherwise extermination will result in a very 

 short time. If the seal herd is protected, and the regulations now in 

 force are maintained, a hundred thousand seals (;an be taken annually 

 from these islands for an indefinite time, provided the seal life is allowed 

 to regain its normal condition from the drain lately made ujjon it by 

 the indiscriminate slaughter occasioned l>y open-sea sealing. 



B. F. SCRIBNER. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me, a notary public in and for the 

 District of Columbia, U. S. A., this 23d day of April, 1892. 

 [L. s.] Sevellon a. Brown. 



Kotary Public. 



Beposifion of Leon Sloss, memler of the firm of Louis SIoss & Co.^ furriers 

 and superintendent for the former lessees on the Prihilof Islands. 



manaoement. pelagic sealing. 



State of California, 



City and. County of San Francisco, ss: 

 Leon Sloss, having been duly sworn, deposes and says : I am 33 years 

 of age, a native of California, and a resident of San 



Experience. ^ , ^ .' /-\ i-x- • t x- ^ 



Ju-ancisco, California. 1 was lor several years a' 

 director of the Alaska Commercial Company, and am a member of 

 the partnership of Louis Sloss & Co., and have been engaged for the 

 past fifteen years in dealing in wools, hides, and fur skins, but have 

 now no interest in seals or sealeries. 



I was superintendent pro tempore of the sealeries of Alaska in the 

 interim fi'om 1S82 to 1885, inclusive, during the illness of H. H. JVIcIn- 

 tyre, the regular superintendent, and spent the sealing season of those 

 three years on the Pribilof Islands in the personal management of the 

 business. I am, therefore, by reason of this service and of my active 

 employment at aU other times in the office of the Alaska Commercial 



