476 TESTIMONY 



season, or some otlier restrictiou, to save tliem from slaughter when 

 breeding, but nearly all the seals killed in the water are mothers with 

 young. 



Bering Sea seems to be i^eculiarly adapted to the wants of the fur- 

 seals. Its climate is moist, the sun rarely shines in summer, and the 

 water abounds in fish. Here also pelagic seal hunters find their best 

 opportunity. They can stay about where they please under cover of 

 the fog and defy any guard-ship to detect them. The range of tlie 

 seals is very broad, and it is impossible to watch every square mile. 

 The only way to stop the destruction of the rookeries is to stop pelagic 

 sealing. If it is cruel and wasteful to destroy a whole si^ecies of useful 

 breeding animals, it is just as cruel and wasteful, in proportion, to kill 

 a few of them. Why should any be killed f 



I do not believe any partial measure of protection will stop the deple- 

 tion of the rookeries. If vessels may be fitted out with 

 necSry^ measures ^j^g paraphernalia for seal hunting, and skins brought 

 into port and sold with impunity, the hunters will man- 

 age by hook or crook to evade any restriction. 



C. M. SCAMMON. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 10th day of May, A. D. 1892. 

 [l. S.J Clement Bennett, 



Notary Fuhlic. 



Deposition of Peter Simes, sealer (steivard). 



pelagic sealing. 



State of California, 



City and County of lSa». Francisco, ss: 



Peter Simes, having been duly sworn, deposes and says : I reside in 



San Francisco. My occupation is that of steward. I made one seal- 



Experience ^"§" voyagc in 1890 ou the British schooner Umhrina, 



umbrina, 1890. of which Capt. Campbell was master. We sailed 



Sealing off coast. f^.^^^ VictoHa, British Columbia, April 8, and went 



right up the coast until we got to Sand Point, sealing all the way up. 



We caught 280 seals going up. When we got there we met one of the 



cutters, and it gave us orders not to go in the Bering 



^^arnedoff. Sea. We laid there a week and returned, sealing all 



fema°ies'teken.^° '^ " ' tlic Way do wn . Wc had 315 skins when we arrived here. 



Mostly all of them were females heavy with pup asleep 



on the water, and we killed them with shotguns. We got back in the 



second week of July. The captain, mate, and myself went out several 



times with the stern boat, and we killed 15 the first time we went out. 



1 think we went out that way three or four times, and we usually got 



about one out of four killed. I recollect one day when 



we were hunting bad weather set up, and we did not 



get any seals. In good weather we got more seals than we did in bad 



weather. 



Petee Simes. 



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

 [seal.] Clement Bennett, 



Notary Fublic. 



