TAKEN IN SAN FRANCISCO. 451 



of them are killed. The mother does not leave the rookery in search 

 of foodimtil she has dropped her young and become pregnant again, 

 hence when she has been slain, it means the loss of females feeding' 

 three, as the young pup will unquestionably die for ' '^ =• 



lack of sustenance. There is no way, in my judgment, of preventing 

 the seals from being totally exterminated, except by eliectually pro- 

 hibiting the hunting of them, both in the ocean and 

 Bering^ Sea during \jieir breeding season, say from season'nece.^ary?^'''^ 

 February until October, on the principle of the gam- 

 ing laws on the land. The last vessel I went out in was the Sophie 

 Sutherland, during the season of 1891. I went as c, , ■ c, „ , ^ 



' r^. , 1 - i" . 1 Sophie Sutherland. 



sailirig master. The vessel was warned out ot the 

 Bering Sea by the revenue cutter Bush. She met us near Akatan 

 Island, eastward of Unalaska. We then left the Bering Sea at once 

 and returned to San Francisco. I have often conversed with many 

 other persons, who like myself were engaged in sealing, and they agreed 

 with me in the statements herein made as to the destruction and dis- 

 appearance of the seals in the northern waters. My view of the matter 

 could, I have no doubt, be corroborated by hundreds of persons experi- 

 enced in sealing, if tliey be found. At this season of tlie year, however, 

 they are absent from the coast hunting and fishing on the ocean. 



Jas. Kiernan. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 6th day of April, A. D. 1892. 



Clement Bennett, 



Notary Fublic. 



Deposition of James LajUn^ shipping agent., and managing owner of 

 sealing vessels. 



PELAGIC sealing. 



State of California, 



City and County of San Francisco, ss: 

 James Laflin, having been duly sworn, deposes and says: I am 60 

 years of age. I liave resided in San Francisco the last 

 forty-two years. I am by occupation shipping agent ^p«rience. 

 for the last fifteen years, and fit out all tlie whaling fleet that leave 

 this port. All the men go through my office. Have fitted out forty- 

 seven whalers this year and have three more in port to be fitted 

 out. 1 also fit out sealing schooners — about twelve to fourteen each 

 year. I have also owned one-third interest as managing owner in 

 two sealing vessels. I handle and pay off' over 1,600 seamen each year 

 in the whaling fleet alone. I also handle and ship a great many men 

 on the sealing vessels. I often converse with the masters of the ves- 

 sels relative to tbe fur-seal, and they tell me that they Decrease 

 are scarcer each year, and that it is much harder to make 

 a voyage than it used to be. I have often heard them say that they 

 only get two or three out of a school, and when they kill them, if they 

 do not get them right away, they will sink and are lost. Further, that 

 they lose a good many that they kill, and that a good ^asteof life 

 many have paps in them, and that wlien tlie boats 

 come aboard loaded with seal and they get through the skinning of^ 

 them tliey would have a big pile of pups on deck. 



