FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 139 



find any except occasionally an old, barren female, but they are very 

 rare; probably not one in a hundred. 



Q. All the females go to the breeding grounds I — A. Yes, sir. The 

 yearlings, which embrace equal numbers of both sexes, never go on the 

 breeding grounds. They appear about the 20th of July. 



Q. Do they haul upon the breeding grounds ? — A. No, but upon these 

 hauling grounds, and there is where the natives select the two, three, 

 and four year old bachelors ; the yearling males and females are spared. 

 They are easily recognized, being much smaller and tinted much brighter 

 on their backs and abdomens. 



Q. They never kill the yearling females ? — A. No, sir ; it would not 

 pay. The fur of a yearling is not worth handling ; it is light and 

 "flufTy." 



Q. The work of selecting and killing, then, can be carried on without 

 any disturbance of the breeding rookeries ? — A. Oh, yes ; as it is carried 

 on now there is no interference with those breeding grounds. 



Q, Under the system adopted by the Government and the company, 

 do you think the full breeding capacity of the entire herd can be pre- 

 served indefinitely *? — A. Yes, sir. So far as we are concerned, I do not 

 think we are able to cause an increase by anything that we can do on 

 the islands, because we can not cause a greater number of females to be 

 impregnated than are there, and as long as that is done, as it has been 

 done and is done now, everything is done that possibly can be done. 

 When they leave the islands they are the prey of certain natural marine 

 enemies, which we can not shield them from. 



Q. What is necessary for their protection when they are off the isl- 

 and ? — A. From their unnatural enemies or from man we can protect 

 them, but not from their natural enemies. Bj those natural enemies, 

 such as sharks and killer whales, they are held in check. They ob- 

 tained a maximum limit of increase in the state of nature, I think as far 

 back as 1848 or 1850, when there were no more seals on those Pribylov 

 Islands then than there are to-day. I do not think there are very much 

 more there now than there were when 1 was there. Some of my friends 

 insist there are not quite so many, and others insist that there are 

 more ; but I think they have not increased much since I was there. 



Q. How does the present system of protection compare with that of 

 the Eussian Government ? — A. It is essentially the same thing. We 

 adopted it from them. But we have improved upon it. We have per- 

 fected a great many of their methods. We have improved the condi- 

 tion of the natives and changed the work, and by so doing we get 

 better skins. But the principle of the thing is essentially the same as 

 the Russians carried it on for a great many years. Their business 

 methods, of course, have been vastly changed for the better by the 

 Alaska Commercial Company. Under the Russian regime things were 

 slothful and very slovenly. The Russians made no effort to hold these 

 islands, at the time of the transfer, simply because they did not then 

 value their sealing industry — it was of small consequence then — a skin 

 only being worth from $3 to $4 in London. They failed to properly de- 

 velop the market, as the lessees have done under our Government, 



Q. Do we give as much attention to the seals at Bering Sea off the 

 islands as the Russians gave them ; that is, against unauthorized hunt- 

 ers ? — A. I have no record of any raiding ever having been done by 

 Americans or British previous to our acquisition ; but if there had been, 

 they would have been promptly repulsed. 



Q. There is no account of a law ever having been adopted allowing 

 or prohibiting the hunting and indiscriminate destruction of seals? — 



