424 -TESTIMONY 



Deposition of George Fogel, managing owner since 1888. 

 pelagic sealing. 



State of Calieoenia, 



City and County of San Francisco, ss : 



George Fogel, baviug been duly sworn, deposes and says: I am 52 



years of age. I reside in San Francisco. My occupa- 



Experience. ^[q^^ jg ^y^^^ ^f ^ mercliaut. I liave been interested iu 



sealing schooners for four years, prior to 1892. I sent 



Kate M'aimin^^ '^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^' ^' ^^^'*^^ ^^^ Kate Manning to the Bering 

 amnng. g^^ ^^^^^ Nortli Paciflc. We equipped our vessels with 



shotguns and riiles. They generally left here in March and hunted 

 along the coast to the passes, and then into the Bering Sea and re- 

 turned here in August or September. Tbe seals taken by them were 

 Keariy all females '^^^^'^Y ^^^ fcHiales, as the buUs are scattered about and 

 go out to sea a great distance, and it does not pay to 

 go after them, while the females go in big bands and do not travel off 

 shore as far as the bulls. We always sold our skins in San Francisco. 

 From the ammunition we furnished them I learned that some of the 

 Experts get a sea l^i^i^tei^s ou an avcragc used from two to three rounds 

 for 2 or 3 rounds of of shot to a scal, while otlicrs used fr<un forty to fifty 

 skot; others, 40 to 50. ^ounds. Froiu the reports of the officers to me I learned 

 that the seals were much scarcer in 1891 than they 

 were in 1888, when I first sent them out. I have gone 

 out of the business because it became so unprofitable on account of the 

 scarcity of seals. I give them four years more, and if they keep on 

 hunting them as they do now, there will be no more seals left worth 

 going after. 



A few years ago you could go off shore about 50 ndles from San Fran- 

 cisco and you would come across thousands of seals leisurely going 

 c» net in 1874 iiorth, while now we see but very few. I fitted out the 

 ygne , in . schoouer Cygnet in 1874, which was one of the first seal- 

 ers to go to the Beriug Sea, and we had no trouble in getting seals at 

 that time, for tliey were very plentiful and gentle, aud would stand up 

 and look at the hunters until they shot them. You can not do that 

 now. Seals have been growing very scarce within the last few years, 

 and it does not pay to fit out sealing schooners. I attribute the decrease 

 Antarctic seals ^^ uumbcrs to their being hunted so much. In 1870, 1 

 sent a vessel to Ohillaway, off the coast of Chile, where 

 there were thousands of seals in those waters. This last season the 

 Rancoch returned from a trip there, and the captain informed me that 

 Decrease there wcrc uo scals Avorth mentioning. They would 



have been good rookeries to-day if they had been pro- 

 tected from marauders. The South Shetland rookeries were in tbe same 

 condition in former years, while to-day you could not get a thousand 

 dollars worth of seals if you were to hunt there the whole season. My 

 experience is that the seal herds iu the l^orth Pacific and Bering Sea 

 have been greatly depleted within the last few years 

 ^ Mibition neces. ^y ^^^ coustaut pursuit and killing of them in the water 

 by hunters, and unless it is stopped at once they will be 

 r ■,. . . ^ , .„ exterminated. The increased value of skins in the last 



Indiscriminate kill- „ , j-iii. • -, i • j_ 



iiig. lew years has stimulated inexperienced men to go into 



the business; and they slaughter everything in sight 

 without regard to sex. Go. Fogel. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 9th day of April, A. D. 1892 

 [l. s.] Clement Bennett, 



Notary Public. 



