342 TESTIMONY 



ariuy proceeds along: the Japanese coast, and head for the Commander 

 and Eobben islands. I believe the seals always return 

 gi^!**'° ^^^^°^ ^^' to the place of their birth. Schooners with white hunt- 

 ers commence to seal soon after the new year; they 

 go south to meet them and follow them up along the coast. Schooners 

 employing Indians do not start so soon, it being difficult to induce the 

 Indians to Dreak up their regular feasting and dancing. Schooners gen- 

 erally enter Bering Sea about the first week in July. 

 ^Entering Bering rp|^g percentage of yearlings or gray pups taken on the 

 coast is much greater than that taken in the Bering 

 iiJcfs''takenf "^ ^ '''"'' ^^^- ^^^ percentage on the coast averages from G to 

 "*" ' ' 12 per cent, while the percentage of those taken in 



Bering Sea will not exceed 2 or 3 per cent. The seals taken by 

 schooners do not bring in the London market more than 

 BkTni!''^ "^ ^"^^"'^ one-half realized by the lessees of the Pribilof Islands. 

 The reason for this is the Company's are all young bulls 

 and are killed by being clubbed on the head, while those killed by the 

 schooners are of all kinds and sizes, and are perforated with shot; con- 

 . .^ sequently are not perfect skins. I believe the majority 



BeriHg"&ea nursiug of scals captured by wMtc hunters in Bering Sea are 

 "o^s." females in search of food. I can not say how many 



seals are killed and wounded, but there is no doubt that green hunt- 

 _ _ , ers lose many, while those more experienced in the busi- 



Waste of life. i ^ ' 



ness lose fewer. 

 It is generally coiiceded that the Indian hunters in the use of the 



spear seldom lose one they kill or wound. I have no 

 Bary"**"^""" °**'*'^' doubt ju my own mind that unless some restrictive 



measures are taken, the seals will either be eventually 

 exterminated or become so scarce it will not pay to hunt them. The 

 fleet has increased greatly in the last few years, and will continue to 

 do so as long as there is money in the business. 



It is very "important that if the fur-seal is to be preserved it must be 

 protected from indiscriminate slaughter in the open sea, or it will soon 



be exhausted. I %vould suggest that either schooners 

 a fioffsfason.^"'"' ""^ s^iould not be allowed to approach within a radius of 



50 miles of the breeding grounds, or else they should 

 not be allowed to enter the sea until the female has had proper time to 

 give birth to her young, and to give it nurse until such time as the 

 young seal is able to exist without it, say the 1st day of August. This 

 is the general opinion of prominent owners of schooners who have given 

 an unprejudiced opinion upon that subject. 



Morris Moss. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me on this 23d day of April, A. D. 

 1892. 

 [SEAL.] Levi W. Myers, 



United States Consul. 



Deposition of Will Parl'er, sealer {hunter). 



pelagic sealing. 



Dominion of Canada, 



Victoria, British Columbia, ss. 

 Will Parker, being duly sworn, deposes and says: My age is 40 years, 

 residence and citizen of Victoria, British Columbia; 

 Experience. occupation, huuter. I went sealing in 1890 in the Wal- 



