286 TESTIMONY 



Deposition of Mattheio Morris, sealer. 



PELAGIC SEALING. 



Matthew Morris, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I was born at 



Kasan and am 22 years old. Am a liunter by occnpa- 



Experience. tion and have hunted fur-seal in canoes oft" Prince of 



indi^criminare kill- ^]^^^^ ^^^'''^}^- Always usc the shotguu for taking scal. 



iug. I lose very tew, as I always shoot them close to the boat. 



Shoot everything that comes near the boat in shape of 



mStLS^"''"*^^"' a seal, and use no discrimination. Most of the seals 



taken by me have been cows with pup. First taken tbe 



Migratiou. geal oft' this island in May. Since the schooners have 



Decrease. commcnced to hunt seal they are becoming very scarce 



and the Indians have to go a long ways to get the few 



No iieingic birth. that they do. I havc never known any pups to be born 



Do uot haul up on i'^ the watcr, or any fur-seal to haul up on the land in 



coast. this part of Alaska. I have never seen any fur-seal in 



the water anywhere around in the inland waters of 



Protection. Alaska. I think all the schooners ought to be stopped 



catching seal, so the Indians could catch them again. 



his 



Matthew x Morris, 



mark. 



Witness to his mark : 

 J. M. Potter. 

 A. W. Lavender. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 9th day of May, 1892. 



A. W. Lavender, 

 United /States Treasury Agent. 



Deposition of pan Nathlan, sealer. 



PELAGIC sealing. 



Dan Nathlan, being duly sworn, deposes and says : I was born on 



Queen Charlottes Island. Am 25 years old and now 



Experience. rcsidc at Howkau. Am a huutcr by occupatlou. Have 



hunted fur-seal, since I was a boy. This i,s the first 



year I ever hunted on a schooner; am now on the schooner Ad- 



Adventure ventuTe. Whcu I was a boy I hunted seal in Dixon's 



Entrance and oft' Queen Charlottes Islands. Always 



hunted during April and May. In June the seal all leave, going north. 



Have always used the shotguu for taking seal. Sometimes I lose two 



and sometimes three seal out of ten I shoot. About one- 



feraafes.''"" *"'"S'^'^°* half of the Seal of the seal I have taken were females 



with pup. Have taken a very few yearlings. Once in 



a while I take an old bull, but not often. The male seals that I have 



killed are two and three years old, I think. We shoot 



^^ inais( riminate kill- everything that comes near the canoe, regardless of sex. 



The sex can not be told in the water unless it be an old 



bull. The last four or nve years seal Jiave been growing scarcer every 



Decrease, .y^ar, owing, I think, to too many white men huntingseals 



ill schooners off Queen Charlotte Islands and in Dixona 



