316 TESTIMONY 



Sea the latter part of August, and bad caught about 1,700 seals between 



the Pribilof Islands and Unalaska ; we caught them 



Seals caught from from 10 to 100 or morc miles off St. George Island. The 



st.GeoSeTii^d!'''"' laigcst catch we had that year in any one day was 26G 



seals. We only took eight canoes and one boat into 



Bering Sea. 



In 1888 I left Victoria on the 11th of April as mate and interpreter 



on the British schooner ArannaJi, H. F. Siewart, master, 



isfs^T'^Eussians^^' and Carried sixteen canoes while sealing on the coast 



" ' ^ '^^^ ' and Indian hunters with spears, but in calm weather 



they used shotguns. We caught about 100 seals on the coast, and then 



in the latter part of May left for the Commander Islands, on the Russian 



side of the Bering Sea, and was seized on the 1st of July by the Eus- 



sian authorities. 



I left Victoria on the 28th of May, 1889, in the British schooner Kate 



as deck hand, with ten canoes and Indian hunters with 



Kate,i8s^. spcars and 'shotguns. The Indians used spears 



chiefly. We went directly to the Shumagin Island, where we took in 



water and provisions, and went into Bering Sea 



Bering Sea. through Unamak Pass, and sealed in those waters till 



Ordered out. somc time in August, when we were ordered out by 



the revenue cutter and went to Victoria. We caught 



a little over 800 seals in the Bering Sea that year. 



In 1890 I left Victoria on the 17th of January in the British schooner 



Pioneer, Morgan, master. I shipped as a deck hand. 



Fioneer, 1890. ^^ ^^^ ^^.^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^j^-^^ huntCrS, whO USCd shot- 



guns and rifles. We commenced sealing off the California coast, near 

 Cape Blanco, and worked our way up the coast to Barclay Sound, and 

 caught about 400 seals and put them aboard another 

 Bering Sea. ycsscl and thcu scalcd aloug the coast to Bering Sea, 



and caught on our way up and in the sea about 1,600 more, and left 

 Bering Sea for Victoria the latter part of August. 

 The seals caught along the coast after the 1st of April are mostly preg- 

 nant females, and those caught in Bering Sea were fe- 

 mSef^™°^*^^ ^^' iiiales that had given birth to their young. I often no- 

 ticed the milk flowing out of their breasts when being 

 skinned, and have seen them killed more than 100 miles from the seal 

 islands. I have seen live pups cut out of their mothers and live around 

 on the decks for a week. On the Pioneer we had a couple of good hun- 

 ters who would get almost all they shot at, while some of our hunters 

 ^ . .,.. would lose a good many that they would kill and wound. 



Wasteof life. , , y .n j^ ^ xi 2. ^ ^ ' 



A green hunter will not get more than one out of nve, 

 and I have known one hunter on our vessel who shot eighty shots and 

 got only four seals. Indian hunters that use spears seldom lose any 

 that are struck, and there is no wounded to go away and die. I can 

 not say positively as to the decrease in numbers, but I know they are 

 much more shy now than when I commenced sealing. 



I know of no place where seals haul up on the coast, 

 nn'^ni'.ft''^^'''^^^^''* nor do I believe there is any. 



Niels Bonde. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me on this 22d day of April, A. D. 

 1892. 

 [sEAL.j Levi W. Myers, 



United States Consul. 



