RELATING TO ST. PAUL ISLAND. 143 



to our people, and I think they liave been generally very faithfully 

 obeyed. Tlu3 bulls and cows being on the breeding rookeries all through 

 June and July, while the killing of the bachelors for skins is taking 

 place, there is no reason why a cow should be driven or killed in the 

 two months named, and it is a very rare case to see a cow on the kill- 

 ing grounds at this time and still rarer to have one killed. 



After the killing season is ended and the breeding season is over, the 

 cows do mix up with the bachelors on the hauling grounds, and they 

 are often driven when we make a drive of seals to kill for food, and 

 sometimes one or two is clubbed by accident. With this exception 

 there are no cows or females ever killed on the seal islands. 



I was First Chief from 1884 to 1891, all through ihe years of the de- 

 crease and controversy, and it has been my duty to inspect the rookeries 

 and seals from time to time and to report the condition of both to the 

 Government and Company Agents. It has been my duty to thoroughly 

 inform myself of the number of male seals — bachelors — cm each rookery, 

 and to select the grounds to be driven from every killing day through- 

 out each killing season, and I believe I never allowed the seals to be 

 overdriven or the drives to be made too often. I remember seeing an 

 occasional sealing schooner in Bering Sea as long ago as 1878, but 

 it was in 1884 they came in large numbers. At tirst it was supposed 

 they intended to raid the rookeries, and we armed a 

 number of men and kept guard every night, and we 

 drove off any boats we found coming to a rookery. Sometimes in a dense 

 fog or very dark night they landed and killed a few hundred seals, but 

 the numbers taken in this manner are too small to be considered. 



About 1886 I noticed that the lines of former years were not filled 

 with cows, and every succeeding year since then has 

 shown a more marked decrease. In 1889 tlie bachelors Decrease, 

 were so few on the hauling grounds that the standard ■nAPr^n^.A ,„ „ •v.if 

 weight ot skins was lowered to 5 pounds, and hundreds of skins. 

 were taken at only 4 pounds in order to till the quota of 

 100,000. 



It was noticed by everyone on the Island at this time that as the 

 seals decreased on the rookeries from year to year the ^^^ ^^ ^ 

 number of dead ])ups increased, until in 1891 the rook- *''" ^'"^^' 

 eries were covered with them. From 1884 the schooners increase of sealing 

 kept on increasing, until in 1891 there was more than "'"'*'■ 

 one hundred. These schooners care very little about 

 coming to the islands to take seals on the land, for they only have to hover 

 around the fishing banks from 50 to 200 miles away and jp,.n,aies fe <v 

 take all the seals they want. It is to these banks the to 2oo'*mnesfrom is^ 

 cow seals go to feed after the birth of their young, and ''*"'^^- 

 it is here they are shot and killed and the pups are left to starve and 

 die on the rookeries. 



Last year I seen thousands of such pups, and I saw many of them 

 opened, and in all cases there was not a sign of food in their stomachs. 

 I never seen a pup that had a mother living to suckle it look poor or 

 sick or starved; nor did I ever see or hear of a sick or diseased seal, 

 although I have eaten the fiesh of the fur-seal all my life, and it is and 

 has ever been the staple meat ration of our peoi)le. 



Seal meat is cooked at ttie Company house every day while seals are 

 to be had, and it is eaten by all the white men on the Island. Men 

 talk of epidemics among seals and of impotent bulls 

 on the rookeries, but those who have spent a lifetime oafe^aS.gTejas.*''^' 

 ou the Seal Islauds, and whose business and duty it 



