236 



TESTIMONY TAKEN IN PEINCE WILLIAM SOUND. 



ing fiir-beaving- animals. Seals first appear in Prince 

 William Sound about the 1 st of May, and were formerly 

 quite plentiful, while now they are becoming- constantly 

 scarcer. I do not know the cause of this decrease. All 

 the seals which I have seen killed were females, and 

 the majority of these were pregnant cows. My experi- 

 ence is that about four-fifths of all fur-seals killed in 

 the water are lost. I can not tell a male from a female 

 in the water, and when killing them never make any 

 efibrt to do so, as the object is to get all the skins pos- 

 sible. I have never seen a live i)up of the same sea- 

 son's birth in the water. I have no knowledge of the 

 existence of any fur-seal rookery or place where fur- 

 seals haul up on the land, other than on the rookeries 

 of the several seal islands in Bering Sea. 



Olaf Kvam. 

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



Joseph Murray, 

 United states Treasury Agent. 



First appearance of 

 seals in Prince Wil- 

 liam Sound. 



Decrease. Pelagic 

 sealing. Mostly preg- 

 nant females killed. 



Waste of life. 

 Indiscriminate. 



Pups not born in 

 water. 



Eookeries only on 

 the islands. 



