130 TESTIMONY 



have been raised in the firm belief that it is wronj*' to kill a cow seal. 

 No one kuows better than the natives that onr })ros])erity is in the pro- 

 tection of the seals. They are our food supi)]y, and our earnings from 

 taking the skins enable us to live comfortably. Should the Company 

 desire us to kill female seals, every native in the village would be inter- 

 ested in having the Government ofticer know it. The instructions we 

 have always received from the Company was to be careful in driving 

 and to never kill a female seal. 



During the month of August the families break up and the seals 

 scatter around, and some of the cows mingle with the young males and 

 are driven along with them when we make a drive for food, and some- 

 times one or two are Idlled accidentally. It is so seldom that this oc- 

 curs, J do not think that there has been more than about ten cows per 

 year killed on St. Paul Island since 1870. 



The skins taken from seals killed for food are salted and counted to 



the lessees on the quota of the following year, so that nothing may be 



wasted. When we were allowed to kill pups in November for food and 



clothing, we always i)icked out the males, because we were not allowed 



to kill female pups, and now we are not allowed to kill any pups at all. 



. When the seals leave the island they go to the south- 



igration. ward, and when they come back in the spring they 



come from that direction. The bulls begin to leave the island about 



the middle of August, and most of them are gone by the middle ot 



September. The cows and bachelors leave in November and the pups 



follow or go with the cows. When the weather is good a number of 



seals will cling to the beach or remain in the water around the rookeries 



until December and sometimes until late in January. I have noticed 



more and more dead i)ups on the rookeries every year 



Dead pups. since 1888, and in 1891 they were so close together in 



places I could not step among them without stepping on a dead pup. 



I saw many of them cut open and examined by the doctor (Dr. Ack- 



erly) and their stomachs were empty. All of the dead jmps were poor 



and thin and starved. 



I believe they all died of starvation, because their mothers had been 



shot at sea when tliey went out to feed. I never saw a full fat pup or 



one who had a mother to feed him dead, except a few 



Cow will suckle ^]jjj^ were drowned in the surf. No cow will suckle any 



only litT own pup. i ^ i i t i ^-i. j. i i i • 



pup but her own, and 1 have oiten watclied a cow driv- 

 ing pups from her until she found her own. She knows her pup by 

 smelling it. 



There are not one-fourth as many seals now as there 



Decrease. wcrc iu 1882, and our people are very much alarmed 



to know what is to become of them after the s?als are killed off. If 



the seals decrease as fast as they have during the past 



Effect ou natives. ^^^ ^^, ^-^ ^^^.^^.^ ^j^^^^ ^|jj ^^ j^^^^. j^^^^ • ^^ ^ ^;^^,y ^^^^^^.^ 



time for us to live upon. 



Aggei Kushen. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me, an officer empowered to adminis- 

 ter oaths, under section 1970, Kevised Statutes of the United States, 

 on this the 6th day of June, 1892, at St. Paul Island, Alaska. 



Wm. H. Williams, 

 Treasury agent in charge of seal islands. 



