160 TESTIMONY 



Large numbers of the former are eustomarily driven up in tlie fall by 



the natives, to kill a certain number for food, and all could be " rounded 



up" as the prairie cattle are, if there was any need for doing so. All 



^ ., .,., ,, , the herd so driven are lifted ui) one by one and exam- 



rosaibilitv of brand- . , , i i -i • j.i • • ^ • i i i 



ing and marking. lucd as to scx, and whdc lu tlus positiou eacli could 

 be branded or marked if necessary. 



If the seal rookeries were my personal property I should regard the 

 task of branding all the young as no more difficult or onerous than the 

 branding of all my calves if I were engaged in breeding cattle upon 

 the prairies. 



The same force that has heretofore been engaged on the Pribilof Is- 

 lands in killing seals in the summer could easily drive n\) and brand, in 

 a few days in the fall months, all the "])up" seals born on the islands. 

 The young seals at birth are very helpless. Tliey 

 swim!^ ^^'^™'"^ *** ^'^'^ ^'of swim and seem to have no desire to learn. 

 When they are six or seven weeks old, if the beach on 

 which they lie slopes down very gradually to the water and the waves 

 roll in on it, they will voluntarily commence to paddle about and finally 

 get afloat without ])articular urging from the older seals, but if the 

 rocks are abrupt at the water's edge the old ones nuist push them over 

 into the sea or seize them by the neck, as a mother cat handles her kit- 

 ten, and drop them into the water before they will learn to swim. In 

 such cases the '^ pups "often struggle to get back upon land. 

 During my stay upon St. George Island several attempts were made 

 by poachers to get on shore and steal the seal, but 

 lamil'!^** "" *'"^ '''■ they succeeded, as far as I am aware, only on three 

 occasions, and in all those three I do not think they 

 killed more than 1,200 or 1,500 seals, including pups. If any others 

 had effected a landing we should have known it, for the rookeries were 

 constantly watched and the natives are very keen in this matter. 

 During the summer months fogs envelop the seal islands or cover 

 ciimato. the sea a short distance from them a considerable por- 



tion of the time. 

 Sealing vessels are enabled thereby to carry on their work without 

 Prohibition witbin ^^^^tcction at aluiost auy point, and conld and would, I 

 a zone about islands bclievc, cross auy bouiidary line that might be drawn 

 luiflcctivo. about the islaiids and catch seals at will inside of it. 



I do not think sealing can be permitted, with safety 



tira^nece8satj%"'*"^'' *^ ^^^^ rockcrics, iu any part of the sea. If the sealers 



are given an inch they will take an ell and destroy them. 



Haiuiy N. Clark. 



Subscribed and sworn to this 10th day of May, A. D. 1892, before me. 



[SEAL. I E. HlLDEBRANDT, 



Notary Public. 



Bc'iiosition of Samuel Falconer^ assistant Treasury agent in cliaryc of St- 

 George Island. 



pribiloe islands. 



Dlstrict of Columbia, 



City of Washington, ss: 



Samuel Falconer, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am Gl 



Experience ycars of agc, and am now a woo]-gro>\er by occupation. 



My residence is Falconer, McLean County, State of 



Korth Dakota. In 1870, in the month- of Octoberj having been 



