178 TESTIMONY 



many points along the northwest coast, the Ahiskan coast, and the Alen- 

 tiau chain, and also visited the Pribilof Islands and St. 



Experience. Michacl, goiug as far north as Beiiug Straits. On April 



4, 1881, 1 was appointed Assistant Special Treasury Agent for the Seal 

 Islands, and immediately after such appointment proceeded to San Fran- 

 cisco and sailed for the islands, arriving there in the latter part of May. I 

 was then detailed by Colonel Otis, Special Treasury Agent for the Seal 

 Islands, to the Island of St. George, and until May 29, 1885, I remained 

 in charge of that Island. During that time I returned but twice to the 

 Uiuted States. I made careful examination of the rookeries each year, 

 and after the first year I comi^ared my yearly observations, so that I 

 might arrive at some conclusion as to whether it was possible and ex- 

 pedient to increase our portion of the quota of skins to be taken on 

 St. George Island without injuriously affecting seal life there. I am 

 satisfied from my observations that the breeding grounds on St. George 

 covered greater areas in 1881 than in 1881, and that 



luciease, i88i-'84. ^^^j j-^^ materially increased between those dates; and 



this fact was verified by all the natives on the island. In fact there 



was no disagreement by anyone located on the islands as to that point. 



I am further satisfied that during this time there was 



Plenty of males. always a sufiicient number of males to fertilize the cows 

 on the rookeries ; otherwise there could have been no increase in the 

 breeding grounds. 



While I was on the island I never saw more than twenty- tive dead 

 pups on the rookeries during any one season. I have seen occasionally a 

 dead one among the bowlders along the shore, which had probably been 

 killed by the surf; but these dead pups were in no instance emaciated. 

 A cow will not suckle any pup but her own. Of this I 

 thfh^wn "otI*^""^^ ^^^ convinced, because I have seen cows drive off other 



tn ownp . pups when they approached them, and wait until they 



appeared to recognize their own. I further think that if a mother were 

 killed her pup would starve to death, for she suckles the pup during 

 the time it remains on the island, and it has no other means of subsist- 



_ , , ^. ence. During the rutting season the bulls generally 



Pemales feeding. . i t i -i .i j. i - -i 



remain upon land, while the temales are constantly 

 Pups learning to goiug to and from the water, feediug and bathing, and 

 ^'^™- teaching their pups to swim, as I believe, which the 



pups are unable to do for the first six weeks of their existence. In 

 fact, a pup is afraid of the water during these six weeks and needs 

 a good deal of coaxing at first to get him to go into it. Young pups 

 can not be driven into the water by men, and when I tried to drive 

 them in before they had learned to swim they would invariably run 

 back from the water. While located on St. George I 

 Managemen . bccame thoroughly acquainted with the methods of 



driving, handling, and killing the bachelor seals by the natives. I 

 believe those methods are the very best that could be adopted for the 

 preservation of the rookeries and conservation of seal life. 

 A female was never killed while I was on St. George, except by acci- 

 dent. Seals were rarely killed by overdriving; but 

 on'lsiand^!'^^^ ^"^^^ wheii such au accident occurred the skin was taken off 

 and included m the quota. Often after the drive I 

 went over the ground where the seals had been driven and counted 

 those left on the road. They were very few in number and did not 

 affect seal hfe in general on the island. The only injury I ever noticed 

 . . ^ from redriving was that the hind flippers of yearlings 

 o over ning. ^j^ch had been driven several times would be slightly 



