RELATING TO ST. PAUL ISLAND. 107 



Deposition of John Fratis, resident on St. Paul Island, and envploye oj 



MANAGEMENT AND HABITS. 



Alaska, U. S. A., 



St. Paul Island, Pribilof Group, ss : 



John Fratis, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am 47 years of 

 age and was born on the Ladrone Islands. 1 can 

 sijeakthe English, Eussian, and Spanish laugnages, and ^penonce. 

 I understand the "Aleut" as it is spoken by the natives of St. Paul 

 Island, Alaska. 



I came to St. Paul Island in 1869, and married a native woman and 

 became one of the people; was made a native sealer and have resided 

 here ever since. 



From 1859 to 1869 I was employed on whaling vessels working in 

 Bering and Okhotsk seas and the Arctic Ocean. I have been along 

 the coast of Bering and Okhotsk seas, and along the coast of Alaska 

 in the North Pacific Ocean from Sitka to Unalaska, and I never saw 

 or heard tell of any place in American waters in that whole region, 

 where the Alaskan fur seals haul out on land or breed, -^^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^.^^^^ 

 exceptiug on the seal islands of Bering Sea known as ouiy on Pribiiot la- 

 the Pribilof Islands. ^'^'^^■ 



From the time I settled here in 1869 until 1882 or 1883, there was no 

 trouble at all in taking 85,000 seals on St. Paul Island ^^^^^^ . 

 between June 1 and July 30, and we often got that num- 85,00076318^* year fof 

 ber by July 20. i^*'^ *" ^^^^ or isss. 



In those days we used to get plenty of seals on the Zoltoi sands near 

 the Eeef rookery, and now there are none there. I have worked on the 

 sealing grounds at everything there is to do, from driving to clubbing, 

 and preparing the skins for shipment. 



When Mr. Webster had charge of the killing at !N"ortheast Point, 

 where he used to kill from 25,000 to 35,000 seals in a season, I generally 

 did the cooking there, and I cooked seal meat every 

 day, and we all ate it, and our jteople live on seal meat, dialled sell ^^'''^"'^ 

 yet I never saw a sick or a diseased seal or a carcass 

 that was unfit for food. 



I have driven seals from all the rookeries and under the directions of 

 several chiefs, and I know the orders were always very . 

 strict about the care we must take of the seals on the ri"^i"g- 

 road, i^o drives were made in warm weather; the seals were not hur- 

 ried, but every once in awhile they were allowed to stop and rest. The 

 men who did the driving were relieved from time to time, so that no 

 man should get too cold on the drive, and when the sun came out warm 

 the drive was always abandoned and the seals allowed to go into the 

 sea. I never saw the seals overdriven or overheated, nor have I ever 

 seen a seal die on the drive except one or two occasionally smothered. 



The drivers carry their knives along, and when a seal dies they skin 

 him and the skin is brought to the salt house and counted in with the 

 others. 



An overheated seal would not be worth skinning, and for that reason 

 the company agent is particular that the seals are not overheated. I 

 have clubbed seals, too, and at i)resent I am a regular clubber. 



We know a cow seal on sight, and when we find one on the killing 

 grounds we take care she is not injured. Very few cows get into the 

 drives before the middle of August, and then we are only driving and 

 kiUing a few hundred a week for food. 



