438 TESTIMONY 



Q. The motLer seals'? — A. Yes, sir. 



Q. How far from the islands have you killed those 

 miSfrom isiandsi^^*^ mother seals that were in. milk"?— A. I have killed 

 them as far oft" as 150 miles oft" the land. 



Q. Is that in the Pacific or Bering Sea? — A. Both in the Pacific and 

 Bering Sea. 



Q. They were evidently the mothers that had young? — A. Yes, sir; 

 they had their young. Some of the seals had left their 

 remaks sealing. youug ou the islauds and were going away, and were 

 through with them or going to feed. Sometimes a seal goes a long 

 way oft' the islands at a certain time. It depends where the feed is. 

 A seal does not think very much of traveling a hundred miles; they 

 travel very fast when they want to. 



Q. If sealing continues as heretofore, is there any danger of exter- 

 minating them? — A. If they continue as they have been, since I have 

 been in the business, I will give them another ten years; after that the 

 sealing business will be about finished. It will not justify anyone to fit 

 out fi'om here or anywhere else, and people that look after the sealing 

 interests, I do not think they will benefit anything by it, if they don't 

 protect the seal life at present. 



Q. Do you think it is absolutely necessary to protect the cows in the 

 Bering Sea to keep them from being exterminated? — A. I do. 



Q. Is it often necessary to protect them in the North 

 Protection neces Pacific?— A. That is a question that should be inter- 

 national. 



Q. What I want to get at is, is it your idea that in order to protect 

 and keey) up this supply of young seals that it is necessary not only to 

 protect them in the Bering Sea but to protect the cows as they are in 

 the North Pacific, nearingthe ground, or as they are coming out? — A. 

 Yes, sir; in the way it is here, the Pacitic Ocean is a large ocean. The 

 seals are spread all over, and it would be impossible to go to work and 

 exterminate them from these Avaters to decrease them as long as they 

 keep them out of the Bering Sea. That is where the body of the seals 

 get into. For 40 miles within the passage they can not handle the seals 

 at all, because you don't see them. They are traveling too much. You 

 may see a herd once in while, but very rarely. 



Q. Whereabouts in the North Pacific do you find them the most 

 numerous? — A. Yon can start from San Francisco, and you carry them 

 all the wayu]) from the time you lea\'e here until you get up to' those 

 passes; all the way up 150 miles to 30 miles in the shore. In some 

 places you come in closer than that, according to the point of laud that 

 you come into. 



Q. Are seals generally shot with a rifle or shotgun? — A. They used 

 to shoot them with rifles; now they shoot them all witli shotguns. 

 ^ .,., ,. , ^ Q. In your opinion do the seals on the Russian side 



Pnbilof and Rus- .,.'', -^ n j_i -r-. -^ •^ j.i 



sian herds separate intermingle With thosc OU the Pacific Side, or are they 

 ^'^'■'i^- a separate herd ? — A. They are a different herd of seals, 



altogether. 



Q. If the cow seals are to be protected in the Bering Sea, what 

 month do you think it would be necessary to prohibit any being- 

 taken ? Would you prohibit them being taken at any time or all times? — 

 A. I think if they are prohibited at all tliey should prohibit them for 

 about two months, iirincipally July and August. 



Q. How about September? — A. They are through breeding then, and 

 the ])ups are ashore. There are only two months that they can inter- 

 fere with them there for breeding purposes that I know of. The sea 



