TESTIMONY RELATING TO THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. 



Deposition of C. H. A^iderson {sealer). Master. 

 HABITS. PELAGIC SEALING. 



Tj'niuiToijY OF Alaska, 



Dutch Harbor, Unalaslca Bay^ Aleutian Islands, ss: 



C. H. Anderson, a citizen of the United States of America, forty-eigiit 

 (48) years of age, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am a master- 

 mariner by occupation, and reside in San Francisco, . 

 Cal. I have been sailing in Alaskan waters since 1880. xpenence. 

 For (7) seven years I cruised in the Unalaska district, which embraces 

 the Shumagin and Sanuak Islands, the Aleutian chain, the Pribilofs, 

 Bristol Bay, and the eastern coast of Bering Sea as far as St. Michaels. 

 I have made (4) four or (5) five trips from Unalaska to Attn and return, 

 and (8) eight or (9) nine between Atka and Unalaska, chiefly in spring 

 and fall of the year. The main herd of the fur-seals bound for the 

 Pribilof Islands moves through the passes of the Fox 

 Islands of the Aleutian chain, Unimak Pass being the 's^a i^n. 

 eastern and the Four Mountain Islands Pass the western bounds 

 through which the seals move in large numbers. A few occasionally 

 go through Morzhovoi Pass on their way north, and in the passage 

 south in the fall gray pups often stray into Unalaska Bay as far as 

 Captains Harbor, doubtless thinking it is one of the passes through 

 the group. I never saw a fur-seal in the water between Atka and the 

 island Attn. The natives along the northern shores of Bristol Bay 

 have no knowledge whatever of fur-seals, nor do those of St. Michaels 

 appear to be any better informed. 



The seals first pass into Bering Sea early in May and keep on arriv- 

 ing as late as tlie latter part of July, but most of them I think enter the 

 sea during the latter part of June or early in July. I do not know at 

 what times they leave, but have observed that it depends on the mild- 

 ness of the winter how soon they begin to depart. I can 

 not di stinguish the sex of seals in the water. Neither do ^.^^^^ wat'lr!"^'^'^^" 

 I know the usual times of the arrival and departure of 

 the various categories to and from the seal islands. Do not know 

 through which passes the bulls, bachelors, and females usually move; 

 but the westernmost passes are those most frequented by gray pups m 

 the fall on the way south. I think the Commander Islands seals are a 

 different body of seals altogether from those of the Herds do not mincrie 

 Pribilofs, and that the two herds never mingle. I think """^ ^ ""° mmge. 

 the Commander Islands herd goes to the southward and westward 

 towards the Japanese coast. I never knew of fur-seals 

 hauling out to rest or breed at any place in the Aleu- Ai^mhTu Sd"!* °" 

 tian chain, or anywhere in fact, except the well-known 

 rookeries of the several seal islands of Bering Sea. 



I have noticed a great decrease in the numbers of the fur-seals since 

 1887, both on the rookeries of St. Paul Island, which Dg^^ease 

 are much shrunken, in the area covered by seals, and 

 in the waters of the Pacific and Bering Sea. On the rookeries, ground 

 formerly hauled over by seals is now grown up with a scattering vege- 



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