372 TESTIMONY 



from Unalaska to Middleton Island; in the year 1889, through the in- 

 land passages of southeastern Alaska as far north as Chilkoot Inlet; 

 in the year 1890, through the Bristol Bay region and the Aleutian Is- 

 lands as far west as Umnak Island; in the year 1891, to the Pribilof 

 Islands in Bering Sea; and in the month of April, 1892, in the Gulf of 

 Alaska from Kadiak Island to Prince William Sound, going into Cook 

 Inlet as far as Coal Harbor. I have never seen nor 

 tiifseafisilnds^"^ °° heard of any fur-seal rookeries in the northern hemi- 

 sphere other than those on the several seal islands of 

 Bering Sea; and have never seen fur-seals in great abundance save on 

 and near the Pribilof Islands. 



N. B. Miller. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 27th day of April, 1892. 



Joseph Mueeay, 

 TJyiited States Treasury Agent. 



Deposition of Nelson T. Oliver, scaler. 



PELAGIC SEALING. 



Nelson T. Oliver, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am a native 

 of New Bedford, Mass., and I am 58 years old. I am 

 xpenence. ^ resident of Port Townsend, where I have lived for the 



past twenty years. I followed sea-faring life Ixom the time I was 15 years 

 old until 1888. I accompanied Capt. Jacobs on board 

 Moihe Adams, 1888. ^^^ j^j^^^^.^ Aciams, Sealing schooner, in February, 1888. 

 We left Port Townsend in February and cruised along the coast from 

 Grays Harbor to Kyoquot Sound. Our crew were all v\"hite men, of 

 whom twelve were hunters armed with shotguns. We returned to Port 

 Townsend in May, and in the three months' cruise we made a catch of 

 „,.„ 700 seal skins. Not being hunters of experience, our 



Waste of life. ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ two-thirds of all the seals shot. Good 



hunters would not lose to exceed 25 per cent. In the beginning of the 

 season we killed mostly yearling seals, but as the 

 taken*'o%'°co°st. ™^^ scasou advauccs we got almost all mothers in young 

 in the vicinity of Cape Flattery or from the Columbia 

 Eiver to Vancouver. Sex can not be distinguished while the seals are 

 in the water, nor do the hunters try to do so, for they 

 .^indiacriiuiuatekiu- j,|ji everything they can shoot. I am not able to say 

 ° whether the seal herd is decreasing, but it is reason- 



able to supi^ose that where they are hunted and har- 

 assed at all times by so many hunters they are sure to be driven from 

 their usual haunts, if not totally destroyed. 



Nelson T. Oliver. 



Sworn to and subscribed before me this 2d day of May, 1892. 



Joseph Murray, 

 United States Treasury Agent, 



