132 TESTIMONY 



weather is warm a few seals remaiu until January at Northeast Point 

 and on " Sea Lion Kock." 



In 1890 we killed seals at both places late in January, and we seen 



seals on Sea Lion Kock in January, 1892. I have noticed that the 



seals go off south as soon as the beach becomes icy, and when the is. 



^ ,,,, , , land is surrounded by drift ice the seals disapix'ar 



Doubtlul where ,., tt j ^ , ,, , , ^ ^j 



senis go. entn-ely. 1 do not know Avliere the seals go to Avhen 



rooker™each°year!™'* *^®y Icavc the island, but I do think they come back 



to the same rookery every year. 



Ten or twelve years ago the rookeries and sea were full of seals, but 



Great (lecreaao ^^*^^ there is uot a great many; we used to kill 85,000 



in less than two month's time on St. Paul Island, and 



our people earned plenty of money to buy everything they wanted, and 



in the winter we killed 2,000 or 3,000 male pups for food and clothing. 



Now we are not allowed to kill any more pups, and only 7,500 male 



seals for food, and our people are very much worried to know what is 



to become of themselves and children. 



Jacob Kotchooten. 



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

 ter oaths under section 197G, Revised Statutes of the United States, 

 this 8th day of June, 1892, at St. Paul Island, Alaska. 



Wm. H. Williams, 

 Treasury agent in charge of seal islands. 



Deimsitionof Nicoli Krulcoff, native employe of lessees^ on 8t. Paul Island 



PELAGIC SEALING, HABITS, AND MANAGEMENT. 



Alaska, U. S. A., 



St Paul Island, Frihilof Group, ss : 



Nicoli Krukoff, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am 43 years 



of age and was born at Sitka, Alaska. *1 can read and speak the 



Kussian, Aleut, and English languages. I came to St. Paul Island 



in 1809, and have been here ever since, constantly employed among the 



fur seals, and I have had daily experience in all the 

 xpencnce. brauchcs of the business, from driving the seals to pre- 



paring the skins for shipment, and I am at i)resent the second chief on 

 St. Paul Island, to which position I was appointed in 1891. I remem- 

 ber the iirst time I noticed a decrease of seals on the rookeries, about 



seven or eight years ago, and the seals have become 

 <^evTof eiohV eai° ^^^^^' cvcry year since. We used to kill 85,000 seals 

 seven or eig yeais ^^^ g^^ Paul Islaud in Icss tliau sixty days' time until 



1890, wlien they became so few we could not take more 

 than about one-fourth of that number in the same length of time. 

 I never saw but a few dead pups on the rookeries until the schooners 



came into the sea and shot the cows when they went 

 e.i( pups. ^^^ ^^ fi^ed and then the dead ])ups began to in- 



crease on the rookeries. I tiHve often cut open dead pups and examined 

 their stomachs, and found them emj)ty, and the pups looked as if they 

 had been starved to death. There were more dead pups in 1891 than 

 ever before, and th(\v Avere all starved to death. When we used to kill 

 pui)S for food and clothing in November, I often exauuned them, and 

 always found x)leuty of milk in their stomachs. 



