106 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



of a mining business than to those of a legitimate shore business, or a 

 cattle ranch of a thousand acres of land, where you can ride around it and 

 round up the cattle, and watch it, and you know the number of cattle 

 you have, and you have positive control. In this case you are deprived 

 of that. 



Q. JS^ow, I would like to have your opinion as to the sufficiency of the 

 present measures taken by the Government for the protection of the 

 rookeries, and your opinion as to whether any additional safeguards 

 are necessary for their protection. — A. That the present measures are 

 somewhat insufficient is shown by the fact that for the last three or four 

 years there have been increased depredations annually upon the rook- 

 eries. More seals are taken within the limits of Bering Sea. Form- 

 erly seals were only taken outside of Bering Sea as they passed up 

 to British Columbia and off the mouth of Puget Sound in the waters 

 of the Pacific Ocean. That was a legitimate place to take them and 

 one against which no objection could be raised. Seals which come up 

 that way enter through the passages of the Aleutian Islands nearest to 

 the mainland, and it has always been the custom in British Columbia 

 and our sound to intercept the seal and get what they could. Within 

 the" last two or three years marauders have followed them through the 

 passages into Bering Sea, and have with guns and spears taken the 

 seals as they lay upon the water, as I stated before, waiting to haul 

 ashore and have their pups. The cows are heavy with pup, and they 

 do not like to go ashore until the last moment, and so they lie there in 

 the water and this affords an opportunity for these marauders to shoot 

 and spear them. This is done by gangs of Indians which they have. 

 They hire gangs of Indians and take them with them. The effects of 

 this shooting is not alone upon the seals which are at that point, but 

 also upon those all around, and it startles them and raises a suspicion 

 in their minds and there is a general feeling of disturbance, such as you 

 notice among cattle when bears are about or something of that kind. 



The Government's practice, through the Treasury Department, has 

 been to protect these waters so far as they could with the revenue cutters 

 which are at their command. Still it has frequently happened that a 

 revenue cutter goes upon the seal grounds and then is ordered i!forth 

 for inspection, or for relief of a whaling crew, or sojuethiug of that kind, 

 and they are gone pretty much the whole time of the sealing season, and 

 there seems to be an insufficiency in the method of protection. Then 

 there has been an insufficiency on the part — I say it very respectfully — 

 of the Government, in not asserting the fact that they were going to 

 protect the seals, and enforce the laws, so that the British Columbia 

 vessels and our own country's vessels from the Sound, have been ready 

 to say, " This thing has not been determined yet and I will take another 

 chance. If I can fit out three vessels, and get one cargo, I can afford 

 to lose the other two," as the vessels are cheap and inexpensive, until I 

 know that the Government means to enforce its laws. If, as sugi-ested 

 yesterday, Oonalaska is made a port of entry for all vessels going into 

 Bering Sea, to report and clear from there and shows its manifest as 

 to whether they have legitimate and necessary articles for the voyage 

 which they professed, or whether they had concealed guns and large 

 quantities of salt and material generally used for taking seal, I think 

 the thing could be very closely kept under control. If they were 

 obliged also before leaving Bering Sea to report at Oonalaska, it would 

 would be well. It would be a natural thing for them to touch there. 

 It would bring them very distinctly under the knowledge of the revenue 



