TAKEN IN SAN FKANCISCO. 477 



Deposition of James Sloan, sealer. 



PELAaiC SEALING. 



State of California, 



City and County of San Francisco, ss: 



James Sloau, having been duly sworn, deposes and says : I reside in 

 San Francisco. I am by occupation a seaman. I made 

 three voyages to Bering Sea. My first voyage was on 3l'^^,'''''^'i^i i87i 

 the Flying Mist, of which Oapt. Saddler was master; ^'"^ 

 the next was on the Fenelope, of which Capt. Littlejohn was master, 

 and my next was in the schooner Arctic, of which Capt. Brassey 

 was master. We sailed from here on the Flying Mist on the ITtli 

 day of April, 1871, and caught altogether on that voyage about 

 875 seals, of which a large majority were either females 

 with pups or with their breasts full of milk. I saw it ^S taken"!^"™* ^*'' 

 flowing on the deck when we were skinning them. We 

 had six boats, four men to a boat; two boat pullers, steerer, and hunter. 

 We used rifles for shooting. On my next trip, in 1884, I sailed from 

 Yokohama, Japan, on the Penelope, leaving there about 

 March, under the British flag, going to the Okhotsk ^'"'^"P"' ^«^^- 

 Sea, seahng there about a month; but we only caught Entemi Bering sea. 

 two seals, and then went to Bering Sea, entering it about the 22d of 

 May. We caught 767 seals in Bering Sea that year, from 30 to 150 

 miles ofl" the seal islands. The most of them were fe- 

 males, for the reason that they are not as cute and ^^"^^^^ females tak- 

 wild as the males. 



A great many of the female seals had their breasts full of milk, which 

 would run out on the deck when we skinned them. My orders were to 

 kill them indiscriminately, everything I ran across. 

 It is impossible to tell a female from a male in the water, indiscrimiuate kiii- 

 unless it is an old bull. We had six boats on board, '"g^^ inrtistin-^uish 

 each boat having a boat puller, a hunter, and a steerer. aWe'in water.'"^'"^ 

 We used shotguns mostly, except for long range we IrcE^'isso^^*^' 

 used rifles. My third voyage was in 1889. I sailed 

 from Yokohama on the Arctic about the latter ])art of January. We 

 cleared under the American flag, and went to the Okhotsk Sea and sealed 

 there about two months. We got there some 500 seals, of which more 

 than one-half were females, and the most of them had 

 pups in them. We entered Bering Sea about the 17th iXcdBerin"sea 

 of May, and caught about 900 seals, the most of them Majority pregnant 

 around the fishing banks, jnst north of the Aleutian ^'""'^i'^^- 

 Islands. The majority of them were mother seals. We had nine boats, 

 four on one side and five on the other. Each boat had three men. We 

 used shotguns on that trip also, once in a while using a rifle for long 

 range. I think the average hunter gets about one or 

 two out of every five or six that he kills or wounds. Yi'dia \Ui^' 

 I made a whaling voyage to Bering Sea last year, ^ '"' 

 where I remained for five months. I was fourth mate of the bark Lydia. 



I took very great interest in the seals, because 1 used to hunt them 

 myself, and I noticed a great decrease in the number jj^prg^se 

 of seals from what there was formerly, when I was on 

 sealing voyages. It was, in fact, so marked that I called the captain's 

 attention to it, saying that 'we had seen very few seals. They have 

 been getting scarcer every year since I have been going to Bering- 

 Sea, and if something is not done right away to protect them their will 



