212 TESTIMONY 



directed it to be killed, as it would uot eat and would eventually die of 



starvation. 



Tlie larger portion of skins of seals purchased by me at statiocs in 



tbe Aleutian Islands were cauglit about tlie islands on 



Migration. ^j^^-^, ^^^.^^. ^^^^.^^^ ^^ ^j^^-^, breeding grounds at St. Paul 



and St. George. I Lave learned from personal observation and from 



conversations with parties that they lose in killed and wounded at 



Waste of life Icast two out of cvcry three obtained. Other sealers 



have told nie that their loss is much greater. 

 From my personal observation I know there has been a very great 

 decrease within the past four or live years in the num- 

 ber of seals found in the North Pacific and Bering 

 Seas. I am sure the decrease is caused by the killing of f« male seals 

 in the open sea, and that if their destruction by the 

 Indiscriminate kill- iiKliscriniiuate killing in the opcu sea is permitted to 

 continue it will only be a very short time until the herd 

 will be entirely destroyed. 



I never have known, and do not believe that the seals at the Pribilof 

 - , , T 1 ^ Islands haul up on land anywhere except on those 



Land only on Islands. . , , ^ "^ ^ 



islands. 

 I never have been emj)loyed by the present lessees of the seal islands* 



C. T. Wagner. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 5th day of April, A. D. 1892. 

 [SEAL.] Clement Bennett, 



Notary Public. 



Deposition of Kassian Gorloi, Indian hunter of sea otters and foxes. 



HABITS. 



Atka, Nazan Bay, Atka Island, Aleutian Chain, 



Territory of Alaska, ss: 



Kassian Gorloi, a native and resident of Atka, 56 years of age, being 



duly sworn, deposes and says: I am Chief of the native settlement at 



Atka, and have lived on this and neighboring islands all my life. I am 



a hunter of sea-otter and foxes by occupation, and have never hunted 



. the fur-seal as a regular thing. In the months of Octo- 



xperience. ^^^ ^^^^ November, after a blow from the northeast, a 



few scattering gray-pups are occasionally seen in groups of two and 



three. They pass from Bering Sea into the Pacific, and 



Pups migrating. ^^^ ^^^ j.^^^.^^, .^^^^^^^ ^^^.^ region. I havc killed a few of 



these paps in the passes of Atka and Amlia Islands for food, and did 

 not find them difficult to approach in bidarka. I killed ten in one sea- 

 son, about the year 1868, using a spear, and never lost one struck, 

 although they do not float long after being killed, usually less than five 

 D crease uiiuutes. Wc find but few nowadays, and I think there 



there are less fur-seals than there were formerly. I do 

 not know the reason for it. I have never seen an old bull or a full-grown 

 fur-seal about these islands. I do not know^ through what passes the 

 seal lierds move to and from the Bering Sea, nor the time. Schooners 

 have occasionally been seen about this region in the spring, but they 



