FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 171 



Q. I baldly need ask you wbetber tbese violators pay any tax to tbe 

 United States? — A. No,\sir; tbey do not pay any tax, and sell tbe skins 

 wberever tbey can do tbe best. Generally large firms sbip tbe skius 

 and tbey come in competition witb the skins tbat bave paid tbe tax. 



Q. Where are tbese seals born! — A. On St. George and St. Paul 

 Islands. 



Q. To what country do those islands belong?— A. To tbe United 

 States of America. 



Q. Have the United States leased the right to take tbese seals 

 there ? — A. Yes, sir; in 1870, to tbe Alaska Commercial Company. 



Q. When tbe seals leave tbe islands, do tbey do so witb tbe intention 

 of returning? — A. We can only judge from tbe fact that tbey do return 

 to tbe islands. 



Q. They go upon substantially tbe same rookeries every year, do 

 tbey not? — A. 1 liave reason to believe that they go upon exactly the 

 same rookeries. Year before last I killed an old bull tbat old George 

 Buterin, a native, said was one of Mr. Bryan's bulls. Mr. Bryan caught 

 a number of young ini[) seals, and cut off tbe right ear, and then let 

 them go. I liad this bull killed and fonnd that be was one of the bulls 

 that Mr. Bryan bad clipped fourteen years before, and that during the 

 whole time he bad returned regularly to tbe island and reef rookery. 



Q. Do you regard these seals as the property of tbe United States ? — 

 A. Tbey are the i)roperty of the United States just as much as this 

 table is. 



Q. You bave read tbe treaty of cession by which this territory was 

 ceded to the United States by Kussia, 1 suiipose? — A. Yes, sir. 



Q. Where is the a\ estern boundary of Alaska Territory located ? — A. 

 It is an imaginary line drawn througb tbe middle of Bering Sea and 

 through the middle of Bering Strait, westward of St. Lawrence Island, 

 and St. Matthew's Island, bearing west and passing between the Island 

 of Attoo and the Copper and Bering Islands. 



Q. To whom does the western half belong? — A. It belongs to Eussia. 



Q. Are there any seal rookeries there? — A. Yes, sir; there are sev- 

 eral places where they haul up. 



Q, Are tbey protected by Russia ? — A. Yes, sir. 



Q. Do any interlopers interfere witb the seals there? — A. They do 

 not, sir. 



Q. What would happen if tbey undertook to kill seals in Eussian 

 waters? — A. Well, sir, if they sbould go there once tbey would never 

 be in a condition to kill seals another season. 



Q. They bave been burned, I understand ?— A. Yes, sir. The crews 

 bave been taken off, and tbe vessel burned, in one instance at least. 



Q. So far as their half is concerned, it is a closed sea? — A. Yes, sir. 

 Eussia exercises absolute jurisdiction over it. 



Q. Then if tbe English view be true, it presents tbe anomaly of one- 

 half being a closed sea and tbe other balf an open one ? — A. Yes, sir; 

 that is correct. 



Q. How long would seals exist on those islands if Bering Sea sbould 

 be declared an open one, and if everybody is permitted to go there and 

 kill seals? — A. The first year there would probably be a hundred ves- 

 sels there, and the next year there would be more. I think that in 

 five years there would be very few vessels there, from the fact tbat 

 the seals would be i)ractically exterminated. Tbese vessels can take 

 seals just as well beyond tbe 3-mile limit as they could a balf a mile 

 from shore, because the seals go out to feed and exercise in the water, 

 ftud often a dense fog settles arouud these islands. These marauders 



