596 * TESTIMONY 



they migrate 5 the period of gestation being about eleven mouths. The 

 seals leave the rookeries in March when ice begins to form around the 

 islands and the snow commences to fall. The Terra del Fuego and 

 Patagonian seals however never leave the rookeries or 

 Migration. ^j^^ "watcrs iu the vicinity, only going out into the in- 



land waters in search of food. About Terra del Fuego no ice forms 

 and no snow falls that remains. The temperature remains about the 

 same summer aud winter. I think if ice formed there and there was 

 much change in the temperature the seals would migrate northward to 

 warmer waters. Seals always go back to the same rookery after a mi- 

 gration and generally endeavor to get the same i)osition on a beach. 

 In all these localities the sky is constantly overcast, the sun never 

 shines for more than an hour or two at a time, and 

 ti^s**""*' coiidi- around the more southern islands fogs are very preva- 

 lent. The temperature is always cold and damp, being 

 about 40° F. during the summer. 

 Killing seals without reference to age or sex is bound to exterminate 

 the species in a very short time, and it seems to me 

 sary"''*^^*''*" '^^"^^ that uulcss Something is done in the northern sealing 

 grounds the industry will soon be as unprofitable as it 

 is in the Southern Hemisphere. 



J. W. BUDINGTON. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me, a notary public in and for the 

 District of Columbia, this 5th day of May, 189-5. 



[L. S.] SEVELLON a. BllOWN. 



Dejgosition of George Comer, sealer {mate). 



antarctic sealing. 



District of Columbia, 



City of Washington^ ss : 

 George Comer, being duly sworn, deposes aud says: I am 34 years 

 of age, and a resident of East Haddam, Conn. Since 

 Experience. 1879 I have becu engaged in sealing in the South- 



ern Hemisphere and was out every year except two 

 seasons up to 1889. 1 visited on these voyages Cape Horn, South 

 Georgia, the Islands of Tristan d'Acunha, Goughs Island, the Crozets 

 and Kerguelen islands. I have observed the habits of the seals fre- 

 quenting these localities, and I spent fourteen consecutive months on 

 one island, called by us West Cliff, located on the coast of Chile, about 

 a hundred miles north of the straits of Magellan. On that cruise 

 del Fuego ^^ wcrc three years away from home, all of which time 

 and'coasta of Patago- was si)ent about Terra del Fuego and the coasts of Pat- 

 nia and Chile. agouia and Chile. Dui'ing these three years (1879 to 



1882) our catch was 4,000 seals, 2,000 of which were taken the first 

 year, and we practically cleaned the rookeries out. In 1885 to 188(3, I 

 h Ge r ia visitcd South Georgia as mate of a vessel. We had 

 out orgia. iieard reports of the number of seals formerly taken 

 there, but we did not get a seal, and only saw one. In 1887, while I 

 was on Goughs Island, the vessel went over to South 

 Goughs Island. Georgia and took 3 seals. In the summer of 1887 we 

 CrozetandKergue- put six lueu ou Goughs Islaud, aud thcii wcut to the 

 Crozets and Kerguelen Island, commonly called Deso- 

 lation Island. On our return, nine mouths after, the gang had taken 



