194 TESTIMONY 



large iiniiil>ors until lato in the tall. I have been aecastonied to leave 

 in October or early in November, and seals were always plentiful at 



that time. I am of o])inion tliat they do not migrate 

 distance!'' *° "° ^''^''"* to any great distance from the island during the\vin- 



ter. A few hundred young pups are caught every 

 winter by the Japanese in nets off the north end of Yesso Island. 



I have made 32 voyages between the Aleutian Archipelago and 

 the Commander Islands, but have never seen seals between about 



longitude 170 west and 105 east. I am satisfled the 

 ri^^Sdo not w Alaska seals do not mix with those of Siberia. I have 

 gi'o. seen seals in winter and known of their being caught 



upon the Asiatic side as far south as 3C north latitude. 



liobben Island is very small, being 1,960 feet long by 175 feet wide, 



Eobbin isiuid ^^^^ "^ places -AG feet high. Of necessity the quarters 



of the seal hunters and guards, as well as the killing 

 grounds, are very near the rookeries, being not more than 75 feet dis- 

 tant from tliem, yet the seals appear to take no alarm from the close 

 proximity of the men, paying very little attention to persons passing 

 and repassing a short distance from them. If none of them were killed, 



or if the killing were proi^erly restricted to the males, 

 uecessary."*^ iviHing j tluuk they would iucrcase very rapidly and be as 



closely subject to control as the cattle upon the great 

 open pastures of the llocky Mountain regions. There would be little 

 trouble in catching all tlie young seals and branding or marking them. 

 During my connection with the business several marauding vesseL^, 

 Seizure of HenH ^^^^^ British and American, have been captured and 

 etta, 1884; Helena, coufiscated by Eussiau authorities for illegally killing 

 ^james'^Ham'iiton seals iu watGrs adjaccut to Kobben and Commander 

 Lewis, i88'j, and Hone, ishiuds. Amoug thcse wcre the American schooner 

 ^**"'"' Ilciirictfa, and tlie German schooner IlcJcna., in 1881; 



the British schooner Aurania, and the American schooner r7^n//<'.s Ham- 

 ilton Lewis, in 1880; and the British schooner Rose, in 1800; but I have 

 never heard of any protest against these captures, nor of attempts to 

 recover the property. 



ijctviru of seals to -^s proviug that the seals return to the islands, I put 

 isi:<i"i«- a canvas collar upon a pup in 1880, and he came back 



to the same rookery in the following year still wearing the collar. 



John C Blair„ 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 28th day of April, A. D. 1892. 

 [SEAL.] Clement Bennett, 



Xotary Vuhlic. 



Deposition of C. F. Emit Krehs, agent of lessees of Commander Islands, 

 and in charge of Copper Island. 



copper island, management. 



State of California, 



City and County of San Francisco, ss : 

 C. F. Emil Krebs, having been duly sworn, deposes and says: I am a 

 native of Libau, llussia, 49 years old, and an American citizen, duly 

 naturalized, and a resident of San Francisco, Cal. 



Experience. t .^ ^ 1 - a i i • i o/^ii i- xi a • t> 



I hrst went to Alaska m l.sOO lor the American Kus- 

 sian Commercial CoTni)any, of San Francisco, and was stationed at 

 Atka as a fur-trader, where I remained two years. In 1871 I entered 



