RELATING TO ST. PAUL LSLAND. 147 



I believe the seals come to the islands from the soutlnvartl, and when 

 they leave in November or December they fto sonth- 

 ward through the passes of the Aleutian Islands and «« Hiroush the 

 into the Pacitic Ocean. I believe the bulls do not eat p'^'^*'^*'- 

 or drink during their three to four months' sojourn on ^V^^^^^ f^st on rook- 

 the island and 1 know they take little if any rest or 

 sleep. 



I do not think it is any more trouble to nmnage the seal herd than 

 it is to manage some of the herds of cattle 1 have Domestic character 

 seen in California, and of the two the seals seem tome of seals. 

 tamer and less afiaid of the natives, to whom they ;ii e accustomed. 



We could now, as we always did in the past, handle the young pups 

 in the fall. We can care for and protect the mature seals as well as 

 the cattle on the ranges are cared for and protected, and if they could 

 be guarded from the hunters in the sea we could by good management 

 again make the rookeries as large as before. 



After careful inquiry among our oldest iJcople and weighing my own 

 experience and observations, I believe the decrease of 

 the Alaskan fur-seal is due altogether to pelagic hunt- souS tH>!!bir"^^' 

 ing, 



Simeon Melovidov. 



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

 ister oaths, umler section 1976, Eevised Statutes of the United States, 

 this 10th day ot* June, 1892, at St. Paul Island, Alaska. 



Wm. II. WiLLIAiMS, 



Treasury Agent in charge Seal Islands. 



Deposition of J. G. Bedpatli, agent of lessees on St. Faul Island. 



HABITS, MANAGEMENT, AND KULES OF FUll COMPANIES.— I'EL AGIO SEALING. 



[St. Paul Island, Prihilof Groui}, 



Alaska, U. S. A,, ss : ] 



J. 0. Redpath, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am an Ameri- 

 can citizen, a native of Connecticut, and I am forty- eight (48) years 

 of age. At> present I am a resident of St. Paul Island, Alaska. I 

 have resided on the Seal Islands of St. George and 

 St. Paul since my first coming to Alaska in 1875. e^p^"«°''«- 

 My present occupation is that of local agent on St. Paul Island 

 for the present lessees, the IsTorth American Commercial Company. I 

 have a practical knowledge of and am thoroughly conversant with 

 the habits and conditions of the fur-seal as it exists on the Pribilof 

 Islands of St. George and St. Paul, and also of the methods adopted 

 and practiced in the taking of the skins, and of the several efforts 

 luade by the former and present lessees, as experience taught them, to 

 increase the iierd and to build up the rookeries and perpetuate seal 

 life. I have had a, Y>ersonal exjjerience of seventeen seasons on the 

 killing grounds in ditferent situations, from that of seal-clubber to fore- 

 man, several years of which I have been the resident local agent. 

 My position as local agent has led me to make a careful study of the 

 seal (piestion, and it is my duty to report, from time to time, to the 

 general agent of the lessees the result of my observations. 



