TESTIMONY TAKEN ON OR NEAR KADIAK ISLAND, 



Deposition of Isaac M. Lcnard, sea-otter hunter, residing at BeUcofsJcy, 



Alaslca. 



PELAGIC SEALING. 



Isaac Lenard, being- duly sworn, deposes and saitli : I reside at Belkof- 

 sky, Alaska Territory. I have been a sea-otter Imnter ^^ ^^.^^^ 

 for forty years, and have occasionally raided the Rus- ^penence. 

 sian seal islands. When on a raid we would watch for Raids on Russian 

 a favorable opportunity to make a landing, and then inlands. 

 kill male and female fur-seals indiscriminately. Prob- Destruction of pups. 

 ably for every 500 marketable skins secured, double 

 that number of pups were destroyed. I think that a Protection by a 

 close season between the months of February and No •'^'^^'^ s*'*^^"- 

 vember in the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea should be estab- 

 lished in order to i^revent the extermination of the fur-seal species. 



I. M. Lenard. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 13th day of April, 1892. 



Joseph Murray, 

 United States Treasury Agent. 



Deposition of Andrew Anderson, sea-otter hunter, residing on Kadiak Is- 



lafid. 



PELAGIC SEALING. 



Andrew Anderson, being duly sworn, deposes and saith : I reside at 

 St. Paul, Kadiak Island, Alaska Territory. I am a 

 sea-otter hunter by occupation, and am now master ot Experience. 

 a hunting' schooner. While engaged in hunting dur- 

 ing the past eighteen years, I have killed more or less fur-seals. I 

 usually first fall iu with fur-seals off" Cooks Inlet ^ ^ , 

 about the first of Juue. I have noticed a perceptible let aboiit"june ist. 

 and gradual decrease in seal life for the past few years 

 and attribute it to the large number of vessels engaged ^"*^' = T^ecrea^e of. 



Pups not in water 

 luring season of birth . 



Pups born onlv on 



in hunting them at sea. I have never seen a fur-seal ,^„^}IZ\^„^}^. 

 pup of the same season's birth in the water at sea; 



neither have I any knowledge of any being born else- rookeries of i'ri\)iiof 

 where than on a regular rookery. islands. 



I have no knowledge of the existence of any rookeries, or any place 

 where fur-seals haul x\p on the laud, iu the northern hemisphere, 



217 



