TAKEN IN SAN FRANCISCO. 413 



In witness whereof, I have hereunto subscribed inyname and affixed 

 my seal of office this UGth day of February, 1892. 



[SEAL.] Clement Bennett, 



Notary Fuhlic. 



Deposition of Peter Collins, sealer {boat^ndlcr). 



pelagic sealing. 



State of California, 



City and County of 8an Francisco, ss : 



Peter Collins, having been duly sworn, dej^oses and says : I am by 

 occupation a sailor and reside in San Francisco. I 

 was engaged as a boat-puller during the years 1888 Experience. 

 and 1889. On both trips I went out on the voy- ^.^ i8?6-"89 



age of the sealing schooner San Diego to Bering '^^ ^"^°' 

 Sea. In 1888 we left here in February, and commenced to seal off 

 the coast near San Francisco and caught about 300 seals in the North 

 Pacific; we then went into the Bering Sea about the middle of July, 

 and left there abf)ut the 1st of September. We got 900 seals in 1888, 

 and 1,100 in 1889, in the Bering Sea. The hunters used j^irearms 

 both shotguns and rifles. They used a rifle to shoot 

 breeching seals, and a shotgun to shoot sleepers and tramps. The 

 shotgun is not as fatal as the rifle, but wounds a great many more. 

 Fully three-fourths of the seals shot in the North Pa- 

 cific were females with young. Mother seals pregnant ^^^^"^^ pregnant 

 are more easily caught than young bachelors, and I 

 am sure it is necessary for them to go on land to breed, 

 ami I have never heard of them going anywhere else 

 than on tlie seal islands for that purpose. An average prfbTiSiandT^-^ "^ 

 hunter will get one out of four of breeching seals, and 

 one out of tiiree of sleepers that he kills, but a common hunter will not 

 get so many. 



The hunters Avill kill any seals that come along, it being impossi- 

 ble to tell the sex in the water. Nearly all the cows ^asteofiife 

 are in milk during the months of July and August 

 while they are out seeking food, and I have seen mothers indiscnmmate. 

 with their breasts full of milk killed 100 miles or more Mothers feeding. 

 from the seal islands. I know they go great distances decrease 

 in search of food. There were not nearly as many seals 

 to be found in 1889 as there were in 1888. I think the decrease is 

 caused by the great destruction of females killed in the sea by the 

 hunters, and if something is not done to protect them protection neces- 

 from slaughter in the North Pacific and Bering Sea, sary. 

 they will all be gone in a few years. 



Peter Collins. 



Subscribed and sworn to, before me, this 2d day of April, A. D. 1892 

 [SEAL.] Clement Benj^tett, 



Notary Public, 



