158 TESTIMONY 



Poacliiug in Bering Sea had not begun in those years, and it was a 



rare tiling to iind a. dead puj) about tiie sliores or on 



tiws°e day?"^'""" ''' tlie rool^eiies. I had trequeut occasion after tlie close 



of the breeding season to visit all parts of the i.sland, 



and there was no ap]>t'araijce of gaunt or starved seals. Occasionally 



a dead pup was found that had been crushed to death by the bulls in 



their encounters with each other. 



I have always taken a great interest in the sealing industry, and felt 



a great desire to have them protected from destruction, 



pehigTseaiin"^'''^ ^^ ^"<^^ ^ ^^^7 without hesitation, that the great decrease 



in the number now annually arriving at the seal islands 



is due entirely to the killing of female seals by pelagic hunters. 



It has been my custom in the last few years to examine the logs of 



sealing vessels and to converse with officers and hunters 



Waste of life as of such vcsscls iu Order to obtain what information I 



learned fn,m vessels' ^,^^^j^^ ,^^ ^^ ^j^^ lUethods CUiploycd bv huiltcrS, aiul tllC 



loss of seals occasioned in such pursuit. From the 

 logs I learned that in many instances one hundred rounds of ammu- 

 nition had been fired to each skin secured, and often more; and on an 

 average I found that not over live seals to the hundred shots had been 

 obtained. The logs further showed that a large number had been 

 Avounded and lost. 



I also ascertained from the logs, and from conversation with masters 

 of sailing schooners, that not one seal out often killed or wounded had 

 been caught. These inquiries I pursued at San Francisco until quite 

 recently. 



The chief killing by poachers was done between the passes of Aleu- 

 ^, , ,, .„ tian Archipelago and the I'ribilof Islands. 



Where most of kill- -p, j_-/. .• i-i .• ^ 



ing by poachers i« 1 luive uo cxact iniomiation as to the proportion ot 



'^"proportion of fe- ^^^'i^^ and female seals killed by pelagic hunters, but it 



males killed. is my tirm couvictiou, from my knowledge of the habits 



of the males in not leaving the .islands during the 



breeding season and the well-known fact that mother 



Females feeding. ^^^^^^ ^_^ great distauccs in search of food while nursing 



their young, that the females are slaughtered in great numbers during 



their journeys to and from the islands by pelagic hunters. 



George E. Adams. 

 Subscribed and sworn to before me this 6th day of April, 1892. 

 [SEAL.] E. A. Stowell, 



Notary Public. 



Deposition of Harry N. CJarl-, employe of lessees on St. Georr/e Island. 



management, habits, and pelagic sealing. 



State of California, 



County of Tehama, ss: 



Harry K Clark, having been duly sworn, deposes and says: I am 

 32 years old, a native of Vermont, and now a resident 



xperieucc. of Vina, Tchama County Cal., and by occupation fore- 



man of vineyard cultivation at Governor Stanford's Vina Eanch. 



From 1884 to 1889, inclusive, I was in the employ of the Alaska Com- 

 mercial Company of San Francisco, on St. George Island, Alaska, en- 

 gaged through each sealing season as " boss" of a gang of seal-hunters, 

 and in the winter, excepting that of 1880 and 1887, as teacher and 

 storekeeper on that island. 



