TESTIMONY TAKEN AT OR NEAR SITKA. 



Dcpoxifion of Adam Ayonlcee, native scaler at Sitka. 



PELAGKJ SEALING — MIGRATION. 



Adam Ayoiikee, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am about CO 

 years old; born at and reside in Sitka. Am by occupation a hunter. 

 Hunt seal in summer and deer in winter ever since I was a small boy. 

 Seal are first seen and taken by me each year off Sitka Sound, about 

 the middle of April. Have followed them as far north as Cape Edward, 

 where they disappear about J uneSO. They are constantly on the advance 

 up the coast. When I was a boy, seal were si)cared among the islands in 

 Sitka Sound, but now the few that come along the coastweare obliged to 

 go far out to sea in order to get. Have always used a shotgun and rifle in 

 taking seal since a young man. I rarely lose any seal I shoot, as I 

 never shoot at them unless they are very close to the boat. Most all 

 seal that I have killed have been pregnant cows. Have 

 taken a few male seals from 1 to 4 years old, I think. ,„^,"l*^e,^. pregnant 

 Have never killed an old bull. The sex of seal can 

 not be told in the water. I shoot everything that coines .^indiscriminate kdi- 

 near the boat. When a seal is killed dead, he will sink 

 very quick, which is the reason I never shoot them unless they are so 

 near the boat that I can seciu-e them. Seal are always shot in the head 

 when possible. 



I have noticed that seal havedecreased very rapidly in the last three 

 years, owing to too many schooners engaged in sealing D^d-ease. 

 along the coast of Alaska and Bering Sea. Have 

 never known of pups being born in the water or any- „r^°*coasT '" ^^^^^ 

 where else on the coast outside of the Pribilof Islands. ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ not 

 Have never known of fur-seals hauling up on the land haul up on tiie Aias- 

 on the coast of Alaska. Have seen them haul up on "^^Hauf up on Pribiiot 

 the Pribilof Islands. If pelagic sealing was stopped in i^^j'^^'^'^l^.^i^j, 

 Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean, seals would become 

 I)lentiful once more and the natives of Alaska could again make money 

 by catching them. 



his 



Adam x Ayonkee. 



mark. 



Witness to his mark : 



George Kastrometinoff, 



United States Court Interpreter. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 0th day of April, 1892. 



A. W. Lavender, 

 United States Treasury Agent. 



255 



