152 TESTIMONY 



by most of tlie Avhite employes as well; and yet it is true that a sign 



of taint or disease has never been found on a seal cuv- 



T>°adlnpl '^""^^^^' cass iu tlie memory of man. It was not until so many 



thousands of dead pups were found upon the rookeries 



that the problem was solved. 



The truth is that Avheu the cows go out to the feeding- grounds to 

 feed they are shot and killed by the pelagic hunter, and the pups, de- 

 prived of sustenance, die upon the rookeries. Excepting a few pups 

 killed by the surf occasionally it has been demonstrated that all the 

 pups found dead are poor and starved, and when examined their 

 stomachs are found to be without a sign of fo )d of any 

 wHhSpui.r^'''"'' sort. In 1891 the rookeries on St. Paul Island were 

 covered, in places, with dead pups, all of which had 

 every symptom of having died of hunger, and on opening- several of 

 them the stomachs were found to be empty. 

 The resident physician. Dr. Ackerly, examined many of them and 

 found in every iiistance that starvation was the cause 

 Y^ioT '^"'^ '° '*'"' of death. Tiie lowest estimates made at the time plac- 

 ing the number of dead i^ups on the rookeries at 25,000 

 is too high. 



It has Ibeen said that man can do nothing to facilitate the propagation 

 of the fur-seal. My experience does not support this. 

 be^7e^sSeX 'ot'i;..- The reservation of females and the killing of the sur- 

 '^n^'^nother''""*' '''^^ 1^^^^^ malcs, SO that each bull can have a reasonable 

 number of cows, is more advantage to the growth ot 

 the rookeries than when in a «tate of nature bulls killed each other in 

 their eflbrts to secure a single cow. 



The same care can be and is exercised in the handling- and manage- 

 ment of the seal herd as is bestowed by a rancliman 

 seais™*'^***' naun'j of ^^p^^^^ ]^|g bauds of ranging stock, and is productive of 

 like results. The seals have become so accustomed to 

 the natives that the presence of the latter does not disturb them. The 

 X)ni)S are easily handled by the natives, and formerly, when used as an 

 article of food, thousands of pups were actually picked up and exam 

 ined, in accordance with Government requirement, to avoid the killing 

 of a female. So easily are the seals controlled that, wlien a drive of 

 "bachelors" is made to the killing grounds, a gnai'd of two or three 

 small boys is sufficient to keep them from straying, and from the gen- 

 eral band any number from one upwards can be readily cut out. It is 

 possible in the future, as it has been in the past, to reserve u'lmolested 

 suitable areas to serve as breeding grounds; to set 

 deSrabie"^ groimds asidc cach year a propav number of young males for 

 stock-breeding futurc scrvicc upou tlic rookeries, and by the applica- 

 ?oS'' ''PP^'""^^" tion of the ordinary stock-breediug principles not only 

 to perpetuate but to rapidly increase the seal herd. 

 To one who has spent so many years among the seals as I have and 

 who has taken so much interest in them, it does appear to be wrong 

 that they should be allowed to be so ruthlessly and 

 "*'*"' ' "■ indiscriminately slaughtered by pelagic hunters, who 



secure only about one-fourth of all they kill. There is no doubt in my 

 mind that unless immediate protection be gi\en to the 

 ^jrotectiou neces. Ahiskau fiu'-seal the species will be practically de- 

 stroyed in a very fcAv years; and in order to protect 

 them pelagic hunting must be absolutely prohibited. 



N. Ij. — The foregoing is substantially the same testimony that I gave 

 to the commissioners who visited the islands in 1891. 



J. C. Kedpath. 



