160 FUK-SEAL i^ISIIERlES OF ALASKA, 



be a very serious loss indeed. I tliiuk we are in duty bound to preserve 

 them. 



Q. Do you think there is any difficulty in protecting the seals while 

 they are withiu the jurisdiction of the United States? — A. Kone what- 

 ever. 



Q. That can be done simply by a vigorous assertion of power, and 

 prompt execution of the law "?— A. By a vigorous execution of the law, 

 and having it understood that the Gov^ernmeut is going to do it every 

 year. There would then be no killing of seals in Bering Sea. From 

 the fact that tlie Government has enforced the law so vigorously for 

 the past three years and from positive notice having been published at 

 San Francisco that seizures would be made, those people had come to 

 expect it, and were stopped from going up there this year. 



Q. It is necessary to back up that notice by seizing them if they 

 went in there"? — A. Yes, sir; if you catch one in there handle him as 

 rough as you can. 1 do not believe in this thing of letting them go and 

 making a compromise of it. The Russians do not treat them that way. 

 When they ca])ture a schooner they take the crew off and sink the 

 schooner. This is the way to do. 



Q. They do not go about bringing them before an admiralty court f — 

 A. No; they do not. 



Q. What additional measures would you suggest f Some of the wit- 

 nesses have suggested that it would be a very valuable and important 

 regulation to recpiire all vessels entering Bering Sea to touch at Oon- 

 alaska and take out a license, or at least make a report of their busi- 

 ness and what they propose to do. — A. That would be very well for all 

 vessels except the whalers going to the Arctic on legitimate business. 

 They all pass through Seventy-Two Pass. To require them to come by 

 the way of Oonalaska and report would be a great hardship to them, 

 and would bring down on us the anathemas of the whalers. 



Q. These witnesses refer to vessels going into Bering Sea for the pur- 

 pose of hunting '? — A. Well, vessels going into Bering Sea northeast of 

 Seventy-Two Pass should be required to enter at Oonalaska. That 

 would enable us to catch the marauding schooners and fishermen, and 

 that regulation ought certainly to be adopted. Let the Government 

 deputy collector attend to that matter, as he has nothing to do except 

 to draw his salary. He has not five minutes' work a day. He is idle 

 for months at a time. As long as we are maintaining a deputy collector 

 at Oonalaska these vessels should be required to enter there, and let 

 him overhaul them and learn something about them. 



Q. Would that be practicable"?— A. It would be perfectly feasible. 



Q. Do you think it would be practicable to keej) a steam-launch 

 at the disposal of the Treasury agent on those islands"? — A. It would 

 be at St. Paul Island. There is no way of landing one at St. George 

 Island, and there is not as much necessity for it there as there would be 

 at St. Paul, where we take 85,000 seals a year. Last year, after the 

 company's steamer departed for San Francisco, a marauding schooner 

 went up and laid off the reef rookeries, and proceeded to kill seals. She 

 was represented l.o have secured 4,300 seals, which were sold in Vic- 

 toria. If we had had a steam-launch there, the Government could have 

 secured that schooner, or could have overhauled her, and prevented her 

 killing those 4,300 seals. But it was not safe to go out in a row-boat. 

 I have recommended the purchase of a steam-launch tor St. Paul 

 Island, audit could be maintained there in safety. W^e could run it up 

 into the lagoon, one that would not draw over 4 or 5 feet, and we could 

 winter it there, or could haul it out. But we could not do that at St. 



