TAKEN IN THE STATE OF WASHINGTON. 363 



credit for tlie slcius it captured. The worlc continues until tlie spring- 

 season is linislied, wlien some go to Victoria to refit, and others in Ban- 

 dy Sound, and send tlieir skins to Victoria by steamer, witli orders for 

 supplies to be sent to them when the steamer returns. Others go on 

 witliout coming into port to Sand Point, or some other place on the 

 coast, where there is a store, and take supplies before entering Bering 

 Sea. They do not like to go into Victoria, because they usually have 

 trouble with their crews. The work is hard and dangerous. The pay 

 is small, and many run away when they get a chance. There are very 

 few sailors among the crews, the most of them being green hands. Of 

 course each vessel carries two or three sailors in case anything hap- 

 pens to the rigging or sails. 



When they arrive in Bering Sea later in the season, they start in to 

 work in earnest. The water is full of them and you 

 can hear them firing all around. The vessels enter'the ^^^^y^§ ^^""^ time of 

 sea about July, but get the most of the seals in August 

 or early September, when the weather gets bad; but they usually have 

 a good catch by that time, if not interfered with. When the hunting 

 is finished they return to the home port, the crew is paid off, the ves- 

 sel is laid up, and the owner takes charge of the skins and either sells 

 them in the home port or ships them to London. 



As I have said before, the pups are not able to take care of themselves 

 until they are several weeks old, and the cows must go off into the 

 water to get food for themselves. It stands to reason 

 that if the mothers are killed while away from the whiLTifing!''^^'"^ 

 island, and the pups are left there alone, they will 

 surely die; and it is a fact that many mothers are killed in Bering Sea. 

 If no seals were killed between the 1st day of April 

 and the 1st day of September they would increase; do/elllson.'''' ^^ ^ 

 but it would take international agreement to make kill- 

 ing of seals an offense during this season. It is not alone in Bering 

 Sea that the pups and cows are destroyed. Keep all t^ , . „ 



1 J. n A j_ T 1 j_ ji 1 Exclusion from 



vessels out of these waters, and let the same number Bering sea not 



of vessels as are now afloat hunt seals in the -North ^^^'^s^- 



Pacific, and in a few years there will be none in Bering Sea. If the 



present number of vessels engaged in sealing is permitted to continue 



in the business from two to five years longer I think the seals will be 



exterminated or nearly so. I am certain the seals are doomed to 



extinction unless some immediate action is taken to protect them from 



the slaughter that is now going on. The sealers care 



nothing about preserving the seals, and say that the uu^e8*s%'r*otecteT*'^'" 



smaller the catch is the more valuable the skins will 



become in the market, and the higher tlie prices paid for them. In their 



whole conduct of the business they are controlled by the desire to kill 



as many as possible in order that they may enhance the value of future 



catches. 



William Brennan. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 8th day of June, A. D. 1892. 

 [SEAL.] I). A. McKenzie, 



Motary Fuhlic. 



