208 TESTIMONY 



Tlie seals which I have observed on their way to the Pribilof Islands 

 do not move in large schools; they straggle along a few at a time in a 



sort of a stream, and are often seen sleeping in the 

 Ai^utiimishlid's. °" water and playing. There are no fur-seal rookeries in 



the Aleutian Islands that I know of; in fact, I have 

 never heard of any in the region besides those on the several well- 

 known Seal Islands of Bering Sea. I believe there has been a great 

 Decrease decrease in the numbers of the fur-seal species; I do 



not believe there are now one-tenth as many fur-seals 

 frequenting the Pribilof Islands as there were ten years ago. Nine or 

 ten years ago, when lying off the Pribilof Islands in the fall, the young- 

 seals used to play in the water al)out the vessel in large numbers; in 

 going to the westward in the month of May many seals were always to 

 be seen between Unalaska and the Four Mountain Islands. In mid- 

 summer, when making passages between Unalaska and the Pribilof 

 Seals feedin Islauds, used to scc large bodies of fur-seals feeding — 



ce ing. ^j^^^ were invariably to be met with most numerously 



about fiO miles north-northwest true from Unalaska, and from there up 

 to the islands a continuous stream of seals was to be seen moving 

 to and from the feeding grounds. 



When last I visited the rookeries three years ago, in 1889, 1 noticed a 

 great shrinkage in the area covered by seals on the rookeries. While at 

 anchor off St. Paul Island the pups playing about the vessel were 

 very few, and while making a passage between Unalaska and the 

 Pribilof Islands, during the breeding season, did not see a dozen in the 

 open sea during the whole trip, where formerly I met hundreds. In 

 going from Unalaska to Atka and returning during the last of May 



and the first part of June of this year (1892), I did not 

 lagicS'g"' *' ^'" see a sin gle fur-seal in the water. I attribute this great 



decrease to the indiscriminate slaughter of the species 

 by pelagic sealers, and their wasteful methods of securing skins. I 



think that a close season at the Pribilof Islands for 



v^rai ears**"* ^""^ sevcral ycars and the absolute suppression of i)elagic 



severa yc . sealing will cause the fur-seal species, or such of them 



tiot^necoaLi/™'"^'' as frcqucut the Pribilof Islands, to increase, though 



slowly, to their former numbers. 



Ohas. J. Hague. 



Sworn and subscribed to before me this 13th day of June, 1892. 



Z. L. Tanner, 

 Lieutenant- Commander, U. 8. Navy. 



Deposition of Ivan Krnlof, Aleut dealer. 



PELAGIC SEALING. 



Personally appeared before me Ivan Krukoff, who, being duly sworn, 



deposes and says: I am 46 years of age, a native of the Aleutian 



Islauds, and have lived in the village of Makushin all my life. At this 



village we see no seals in the spring, but late in the 



Indian sealing. ^^^^^ .^ j.^^^^ Octobcr, wc go out ill our bidarkas and 



catch with spears and sometimes guns the young i)iii)s which were born 



on the seal islands in the summer and are now going 



igra ion. south. We do uot use nets. There are no old seals 



