FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 55 



Q. This affords an opportunity lor surreptitious sealers to visit the 

 islands ?— A. Not more than two days iu a week could we see thein 

 withiu half a mile of the islaud. I thiuk there should be a revenue-cut- 

 ter there from the 1st of May until the 1st of October; that there should 

 be a revenue-cutter cruising around both of these islands <luring- all of 

 that period, and it should not be permitted to leave those islands, except 

 to get coal, during that time. 



Q. What do you say about having them cruise in the neighboring 

 approaches, down towards the Aleutian Islands and the approach to the 

 islands"?— A. I do not think that it is necessary; anywhere between 

 Ooualaskaand the seal islands would perhaps be all that is necessary. 

 I do not think they find many seal below the peninsula; not enough to 

 amount to auything. 



Q. 1 have 'noticed iu some reports that seals do not go in droves 

 through Oonimak Pass, but cover a large extent of water, and it was sup- 

 posed to have been caused by their interception by these surreptitious 

 sealers. Do you know anything about that?— A. No, sir ; I am not 

 familiar with that at all. 



Q. Where are these seals born I — A. They are born on the rookeries 

 on the sea- shore. 



Q. In United States territory ?— A. Yes, sir. 



Q. What are they — tish, animals, or what are they'? — A. I do not re- 

 gard the seal as any relation whatever to lish. It is just as distinct an 

 animal from a fish as a dog is from a mule. Their habits, their appear- 

 ance, and everything pertaining to a seal is to all appearajice difterent, 

 and its eye is as nearly human as any animal's I ever saw. It seems to 

 have as much human iu it as any animal; as much as a dog. I know in 

 making a drive we can tell whether a seal has been driven before by its 

 actions, and they are very playful. Sometimes young seals will come 

 around the village, just as ]ilayful, so far as auything of that kind is 

 concerned, as a cat or a dog would be, but of course you can not 

 domesticate them, because they will not eat anything outside of the 

 water. 



Q. Will you please describe the first apjnoach of the seals to the isl- 

 ands iu the spring; how they come to the islands, their first approach? 

 I want their manner of coming. — A. The old bulls come iu the latter 

 part of May. They plant themselves on a rookery or on a harem, which 

 is, on an average, about 20 feet square. 



Q. I want to ask you whether they come to the same rock or haunt 

 on the rookery on which they had been previously? — A. Yes; almost 

 as a rule they come to the same ground they had on the previous year. 

 I know the boys told me that an old bull had been coming for seven 

 years to the same rock. 



The Chairman. So he was a homesteader ? — A. Yes, sir ; the bulls 

 are there a couple of weeks before the cows, and they have the ground 

 all staked oft' as out west where there is a homestead. They are con- 

 tinually fighting every bull that comes in there and drive him away, 

 and the weaker bulls must go h-M'.k. They keep coming by the hun- 

 dreds and thousands, and by the 25th of May the first cows put iu their 

 ai)pearance, that is, the year I was there. No, I think that was the 

 28th of May that the first hundred was there; about that time. Then 

 the cows commenced coming in, and as they came in these bulls corral 

 them, and those along the shore get all they can take chajrge of, say 

 from ten to forty, aud then the cows get located and have their i)ositiou 

 on the harem, and there they remain all summer after they once come. 



