EELATING TO ST. GEORGE ISLAND. 183 



The bulls maintain their positions on the rookeries from the time 

 they arrive till the cows come by most bloody battles, and after the 

 cows commence arriving they are continually contending for their pos- 

 sessions. During these conflicts they are often seriously wounded, and 

 their exertions are far more violent than any effort made by a young 

 male during a " drive." Then, too, the male seal must have great vi- 

 tality to remain on the rookeries for three months without eating or 

 drinking and with very little sleep. In spite of this drain on his vital 

 force he is able to fertilize all the cows which he can get possession of, 

 and a barren cow is a rarity. I believe that a bull can serve one hun- 

 dred or more cows, and it is an absurdity to think that 

 an animal possessing such remarkable vigor could be '^°'^° 

 made impotent by being driven or redriven when a " Bachelor." An 

 impotent bull would have neither the inclination or vigor to maintain 

 himself on the rookeries against the fierce and vigorous possessors of 

 harems. The only bulls hauling up away from the breeding rookeries 

 are those whose extreme old age and long service have made them impo- 

 tent and useless, and I have never seen or heard tell of anything that 

 would make an exception to this rule. The methods 

 employed in taking the skins are, in my opinion, the ' '"^" 

 best that can be adopted. The killing grounds are situated as near the 

 rookeries and hauling grounds as is possible without having the breed- 

 ers or bachelors disturbed by the smell of blood or putrefaction, and 

 most stringent regulations have always been enforced to prevent dis- 

 turbing or frightening the breeding seals. 



I am convinced that if open-sea sealing had never been indulged in 

 to the extent it has since 1885 or perhaps a year or two 

 earlier, 100,000 male skins could have been taken an- b?pXgS!aifnr'^ 

 nually forever from the Pribilof Islands without de- 

 creasing the seal herd below its normal size and condition. The cause 

 of the decrease which has taken place can be accounted for only by 

 open-sea sealing; for, until that means of destruction to seal life grew 

 to be of such proportions as to alarm those interested in the seals, the 

 seal herd increased, and since that time the decrease of the number 

 of seals has been proportionate to the increase in the number of those 

 engaged in open-sea sealing. The majority of seals killed in the water 

 are females, and all the females killed in Behring Sea are mothers who 

 have left their pups on the rookeries and gone some distance from the 

 Islands in search of food. The death of every such mother seal at sea 

 means the death of her pup on shore, because it is absolutely and en- 

 tirely dei^endent on her for its daily sustenance. I 

 never heard of any disease among the seal herd, nor of aiseasl'"'* ^"^'■'''*'* *** 

 an epidemic of any sort or at any time in the history 

 of the Islands. I do not remember the precise date of the first success- 

 ful raid ui)on the rookeries by sealing schooners, but I ^^.^^^ 

 do know that for the past ten years there have been 

 many such raids attempted, and a few of them successfully carried out, 

 and that as the number of schooners increased around the Islands, the 

 attempted raids increased in proportion, and it has been deemed neces- 

 sary to keep armed guards near the rookeries to repel such attacks. 

 Although a few of the raids were successful, and a few hundred seals 

 killed and carried off, from time to time during the past ten years, the 

 aggregate of all the seals thus destroyed is too small to be mentioned 

 when considering the cause of the sudden decline of seal life on the 

 Pribilof Islands. 



Twenty-four years of my life have been devoted to the sealing in- 



