366 TESTIMONY 



of tlie decrease is too much hunting and indiscriminate killing. Have 



never known or heard of i^ups being born in the water 



opeagic ir . or anywlierc elsc ou the coast outside of the Pribilof 



Donotiiani out on Islands. Havc ucvcr known any fur-seal to haul out 



rrTbi?of7siands!^''° ou the land or on tlie coast elsewhere than the Pribilof 



Islands. Have killed seals 200 miles from the Pribilof 



Islands that were full of milk. I think that all pelagic sealing sliould 



be stopped for five or six years, and the seal would 



Protection. bccomc plenty again. 



Chad George. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 26th day of April, 1892. 



A. W. Lavender, 

 United States Treasury Agent. 



Dejjosition of Norman Hodgson, sealer. 



Norman Hodgson, being duly sworn, deposes and saith : I reside at 



Port Townsend, State of Washington, and am a fur- 

 Expenence. ^^^-^ huutcr by occupatiou. I havc engaged in that 



pursuit four seasons, in the years 1887, 1888, 1889, and 1891. I sailed 

 in vessels clearing from Port Townsend two seasons, and in others 

 from Victoria, British Columbia, for two seasons. We first fell in with 

 fur-seals moving north early in the month of February, about 50 

 miles off the coast in the region of Cape Mendocino, California. They 

 were very scarce then, but as we traveled up the coast we found them 

 more numerous. They were most plentiful oft' the mouth of the Columbia 



Eiver in the early part of the month of March. The mi- 

 Migration. gratory movement of the fur-seal is ft-om the southward 



to the northward and westward, following the general trend of the 

 coast of the mainland. The main herd is most compactly massed be- 

 tween 40 and 60 miles off shore, but some of the seals scatter and 

 straggle over an area a long distance on each side of that. The males 

 are generally in advance of the females on the passage north. Females 

 are found in the greatest numbers oft' Baranoff Island about the middle 

 of the month of May. We followed the main herd up the coast as far 

 as the southwestern end of Kadiak Island, where we usually left them on 

 account of their diminished numbers. We would then go to Sand Point, 

 Popoft' Island, about the 25th of June, refit and repair the vessel and 

 Tim of enterino- ^^^^ ^^ board fr^esh supplics, and then start for Ber- 

 and'"ieaYing%eiiD| iug Sca, which wc generally entered about the 10th of 

 s**^- July. We remained in the sea until the first part of 



September, when we would leave it on account of bad weather, return -- 

 ing in a direct line to Puget Sound. 



I think the duration of the winter season has a direct bearing on the 



northward migration of the fur-seal species, as I have 

 a&cf "migr^atiol!"**''' observcd that they move that way earlier after an open 



winter than an unusually severe one. The first season 

 and the last two our hunters were all white men; but on my second 

 cruise we carried mostly West Coast Indians from Vancouver Island 

 o tfltofve els as huuters. The Indians used spears principally, while 

 u o vesses. ^^^ white huutcrs employed breech-loading firearms 

 (rifles and shotguns) exclusively. Indians using spears recover more 

 than 90 per cent of all fur-seals struck, while the white hunter secures 



