210 TESTIMONY 



Deposition of Arilmr JSl'civman, agent of lessees on Aleutian Islands. 



HABITS.. 



Tliuliuk, Unalaska Island, Aleutian Islands, 



Territory of Alaslm, ss: 



Artliiir Newman, a citizen of the United States of America, 51 j^ears 

 . of age, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I liave 



xperience. lived in tlie Alentian Islands the greater iiart of the 



time since 1869. For eight years I was agent for the Alaska Commercial 

 Cojnpany at Ohernofsky, and for ten years I acted in the same capacity 

 at Umnak; for three years I was an officer of a supi)ly tender making 

 trips between San Francisco and Unalaska. I have made fonr trips to 

 the westward as far as Attn, at different seasons of the year, I ob- 

 served that the fnr-seals usually commence to move 

 igra ion. through both the East and West Passes of Umnak into 



Bering Sea about the last of May, the majority enter in the latter part 

 of June, while very few are to be seen moving north after the middle of 

 July. The seals going north tlirough these passes are mostly females 

 and young bachelors; very few bulls go that way. The natives first 

 rei)orted fur-seals moving south through the same passes about the 1st 

 of October. The majority pass into the Pacific between the 20th of Oc- 

 tober and the 1st of November, while the last ones are usually observed 

 about the 25th of November. The seals moving south 

 eex^u^watel^**"""^^^^ ^^'^ S^^^J P^^P'"5, and mediumsizcd seals, the former in 

 the majority. I can not distinguish the sex of fur-seals 

 in the water. 



Seals leaving the Bering Sea via the western passes are generally 

 Mio^iation Seen moviug steadily towards the south during north- 



erly and northwesterly Aveather, but very rarely before 

 a northeasterly wind. I think a somewhat larger portion of the seal 

 herd moves through the East Pass of Umnak, than through the West 

 Pass. Tlie proportions of pups, etc., are about the same, however. I 

 1)0 not land or breed ^ave sccu sick and wouudcd fur-seals hauled out on 

 except on Pribiiof rocks about the passGS to rest and die, but know of no 

 "^^^""'^^' place where they habitually land to breed or rest in 



the region, save the several well-known seal islands of Bering Sea. I 

 jj^^.^g have seen seals sleeping on kelp and feeding about it, 



but have never seen them copulate anywhere except on 

 a rookery. I do not believe that pups bom on kelp could be properly 

 nursed and brought up. I do believe that it is necessary to their suc- 

 cessful existence that they be born on land, since they can not swim at 

 birth. In the winter of lS71-'72, 1 made one of an expedition fi'om San 

 Francisco to the Antarctic fur-seal rookeries of Staten Land, and spent 

 altogether, about a month's time on the rookeries during the months 

 of November and December, 1871, and January, 1872, which is their 

 breeding season. I there observed that a pup is fully a month old be- 

 fore venturing in the water at all, and I do not believe they are expert 

 until between three and four months of age. While sailing between 

 San Francisco and Unalaska I never saw a fur-seal in the water be- 

 tween sight of the highland of the Aleutians and San Francisco, but 

 close to the Fox Islands generally fell in with plenty of them. I never 

 saw a fur-seal in the water between Amukta Pass and Attn Island. I do 

 ^ ;, ^r, 1 not think the fur-seal herds of theCommander and Prib- 



er and rHi.iiof is- dof Islauds cvcr tict closc cnough to cacli Other lu tlicse 

 lands do not mingle. Jatitudcsto mingle. I believe there has been a great 



