TAKEN IN SAN FRANCISCO. 415 



year was teemiug with seal life. In 1890 the IS'orth ^ . 



Americau Commercial Company were unable to kill commercial compan^ 

 seals of suitable size to malce their quota of 00,000 unable to procure ita 



,, -.,-,., , . ? . 1 1 XI quota in 1890. 



allowed by then' lease, and, m my opinion, had they 

 been peroiitted to take 50,000 in 1891, they could not have secured that 

 number if they had killed every bachelor seal with a merchantable 

 skin on both islands, so great was the diminution in the number of 

 animals found there. 



I arrived with my command at St. Paul Island June 7, 1891 ; at that 

 date very few seals had arrived and but a small niim- ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ g^ 

 ber had been killed for fresh food. On the 12th of George ' islands in 

 June, 1891, we were at St. George Island and found a ^^''^• 

 few seals had been taken there, also for food, the number of seals arriv- 

 ing not being enough to warrant tlie killing any great number. Dur- 

 ing that year I was ;it and around both these islands every month from 

 and including June until the 1st day of December (excepting October), 

 and at no time were there as many seals in sight as in 1890. I assert 

 this from actual observation, and it is my opinion we -q^^j.^^^^ 

 will find less this year, and should i^elagic sealing in ^ " ^' 

 tlie ]^orth Pacific and Bering Sea continue, it is only a question of a 

 very few years, when seal in these seas, and esj)ecially at the seal islands, 

 will be a thing of the past, for they are being rapidly destroyed by the 

 kiUiiig of females in the open sea. 



As to the percentage of seals lost in pelagic sealing where the use- of 

 firearms is employed, I am not able to state of my own .„ . „ ,.„ 



1 j^- 1 X J- X- -XT J.1 A\ asto of life. 



observation, but trom conversations with those en- 

 gaged in the business I am of the opinion that the number secured is 

 small compared with those lost in attempts to secure them. No men- 

 tion was ever made of any unusual number of dead ^_^^^ 

 pups upon the rookeries having been noticed at any 

 time prior to my visit in 1870, but when I again visited the islands in 

 1890 I found it a subject of much solicitude by those iuterested in the 

 perpetuation, and in 1891 it had assumed such proportions as to cause 

 serious alarm. The natives making the drives first discovered this 

 trouble, then special agents took note, and later on I think almost every- 

 one who was allowed to visit the rookeries could not close their eyes 

 or nostrils to the great numbers of dead pups to be seen on all sides. 

 In company with Special Agent Murray, Captain Hooper, and Engineer 

 Breiton, of the Corivin, I visited the Eeef and Gobatch rookeries, St. 

 Paul Island, in August, 1891, and saw one of the most pitiable sights 

 that I have ever witnessed. Thousands of dead and dying pups were 

 scattered over the rookeries, while the shores were lined with emacia- 

 ted, hungry little fellows, with their eyes turned toward ^iitojsies 

 the sea uttering plaintive cries for their mothers, which 

 were destined never to return. Numbers of them were 

 opened, their stomachs examined, and the fact revealed ^1°^'^*'* '''"" ^*'*'"^*- 

 that starvation was the cause of death, no organic dis- 

 ease being api)areut. 



The greatest number of seals taken by hunters in 1891 was to the 

 westward and northwestward of St. Paul Island, and the largest num- 

 ber of dead pups were found that year in rookeries situated on the west- 

 ern side of the island. This fact alone goes a great 

 way, in my opinion, to confirm the theory that the loss e.aSos "iLth TpuJ" 

 of the mothers was the cause of mortality among the^ 

 young. 



