196 



TESTIMONY 



Eookeries on the i 

 land, location of. 



Driving and 

 driving. 



bull capable of serving at least fifteen or twenty cows with most desir- 

 able results. 



The best methods of managing seal rookeries are as well understood 

 and as carefully practiced as any other branch of husbandry, and the 

 same methods have been pursued with such excellent results through a 

 long series of years that there can be no doubt about their correctness. 

 Copper Island is some 30 miles long and from 1 to 3 miles wide. 

 The rookeries lie on the easterly and the village arid 

 killing grounds on the westerly side of the island. 

 Between the rookeries and the killing grounds a con- 

 tinuous ridge, ranging from a few hundred to 2,000 feet in height, runs 

 the wliole length of the island. Over this ridge, at a point where it 

 reaches about 600 or 700 feet in height, all the seals 

 are driven; the joui'uey requiring from live to twenty- 

 four hours, depending upon the weather. The practice 

 of thus driving them has been pursued ever since the earliest history 

 of the business. Many of the seals are repeatedly driven and redriven 

 over this trail in a single summer, but I have never seen 

 drhhi'""'"^'^ ^'""^ '*^ '^^^y injury to them fi-om the exertion to which they are 

 in this way subjected. The statement of an expert that 

 the virility of the seal is sapped and his powers of reproduction in any 

 way weakened by such redriving is not borne out by the facts. On 

 the contrary, the steady and rapid increase of the herd at Copper Is- 

 land, already pointed out, again i^roves the old adage that in this mat- 

 ter, as in others, " theory is everywhere good except in i^ractice." 

 I append hereto a statement showing the number of seals killed an- 

 nually upon Copper Island liom 1871 to 1880, inclusive. 

 Nnmher of seals TMs Statement shows that 3,658 skins were taken in 



lulled on island from ^ „_^ „m • ^ i • i j-i j. i ^ j_i 



1S71 to 1880. 1871. This number were shipped that year, but the 



number actually killed was in fact more than 6,000. 



C. r. Emil Kkebs. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 2d day of May, 1892. 

 [l. s.] Clement Bennett, 



Notary Public. 



The following table shows the number of fur-seals taken for their skins 

 on Cop])er Island, of the Commander group, fi-oml871 to 1880, inclusive, 

 under the direction of C. F. E. Krebs, for Hutchinson, Kohl & Co.: 



1871 3, 658 



1872 14, 964 



1873 14, 661 



1874 15, 480 



1875 20, 440 



1876 15, 074 



1877 11, 392 



1878 20, 070 



1879 25, 166 



1880 30, 014 



Total 170, 919 



Note. — There were in fact about 6,000 killed in 1871, of which only 

 the numbers as above stated were shipped. In 1876 and 1877 more 

 could have been taken, but the seal-skiu market was depressed and 

 they were not wanted. 



I certify that the above table is the one referred to in the foregoing 

 deposition of C. F. E. lu'cbs. 



[l. s.] Clement Bennett, 



Notary Public. 



