490 TESTIMONY 



sealed in the Bering Sea from that time to the 28tli of August, caught 



about 2,200 more, the whole catch being 3,000 for the year. In 1887 I 



• F -^niss? ^^^ master of the schooner Lottie Fairfield,, sailing 



from San Francisco on or about the 17th day of March, 



and worked northward to the Bering Sea, and captiu'ed 



Entered Bering Sea. 333 ^^^^^^ j ^^^^ entered the Bering Sea about the 6th 



of July, cruising there until the 29tli day of August, and took 2,517 



seals more, the whole catch being 3,400 for the year. 



In 1888 I took the schooner Undaunted on a fishing and sealing voy- 

 age, leaving here on or about the 20tli <»f March, and cruised in the 

 North Pacific up to the island of Kodiak, capturing 400 



^muJmmted, 1888, ^^^^ ^^p ^^ ^^^^ j^], j.^y ^^^ j^j^j^^ j ^^j^^ ^^^^^ p^^^^^. ^^^ 



Bering Sea that year. I did the same in 1889, my trip 

 being the same as in 1888, and my capture of seals was about the same. 

 I then quit sealing, and I am now engaged in trading with the Gilbert 

 and Marshall islands in the South Pacific Ocean. While master I was 

 tino^s also engaged in shooting seals. I used both a rifle and 



100 ing sea s. doublc barreled shotgun ; the rifle for shooting " travel- 

 ers" and the shotgun for shooting sleex>iiig seals. The City of San 

 Diego had four boats. Each boat had a hunter and two men to pull. 

 The Terese had five boats similarly equipped. The Lottie Fair- 

 field han six boats similarily equipped. The ?7n- 

 ^g;»f*y »«"•«•'"* f"- daunted had four boats. In my captures off the coast 

 between here and Sitka 90 per cent of my catch were fe- 

 males, but off the coast of Uuamack Pass there was a somewhat smaller 

 percentage of females, and nearly all the females were cows heavy with 

 „ ^ pup, and, in some instances, the x)eriod of gestation 

 ema es pregnan.. ^^^ ^^ near at hand that I have fi-equently taken the 

 live puj) from the mother's womb. I have never known of any seals to 

 haul up and breed between here and Unamack Pass. I have often fol- 

 Do not haul up on lowcd them vcry close in to the mainland, and have 

 land. killed them sleeping on the water. 



From my experience and observation relative to the fur-seal, I am 

 firmly of the opinion that it is a physical impossibility 

 water^ ""* ^"'^^ *° ^^^ *^^^ mother seal to give birth to her young in the 

 water and preserve it; but that it is necessary for her 

 to haul up on the land t'o give birth and rear her young. I have never 

 known or heard of their giving birth to their young other than on their 

 Land only on is- regular hauliug grounds; and know of no instances 

 lands. where male seals have hauled out on land on the west- 



ern coast except at the Pribilof Islands. I never paid any particvdai 

 attention as to the exact number of or proportion of each sex killed in 

 the Bering Sea, but I do know that the larger por- 

 takln^'*"* females ^[^y^^ ^f thciu wcrc fcmalcs, and were mothers giving 

 milk. I have never hunted within 15 miles of the 

 1^6^3^3 200 01116 8 Pribilof Islands; but I have often killed seals in milk 

 from islands. ^^ distauccs of uot Icss tliau 100 to 200 miles from these 



islands. From my knowledge and experience in the business it is my 

 conviction that within the last yew years, since the sealers have 

 become so numerous in the Pacific and Bering Sea, 

 Waste of life. ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^.^ ^j^,^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^.^^ j^ securcd. Our 



purpose and practice was to take all the seals we could get, regardless 



of their age or sex, without any discrimination whatever. My expe- 



^ ,. . . ^ , .„ rience is that the seals have been decreasing in num- 



IndiBcnuunate kill- , ^ ., , , . i ^,^ ■ j.i 



lug. bers for the last six or seven years, and within the 



past two or three years very rapidly, owing to tlie in- 

 discriminate killing of them by i^elagic hunters and 



