JOINT STATEMENT OF CONCLUSIONS 243 



by the herd during the twelvemonth 1896 to 1897, without attempting, save by setting 

 the above numbers on record, to ascribe to the decrease more precise figures. 



9. The methods of driving and killing practiced on the islands, as they have come 

 under our observation during the past two years, call for no criticism or objectiou. 

 An adequate supply of bulls is present on the rookeries; the number of older bachelors 

 rejected in the drives during the period in question is such as to safeguard in the 

 immediate future a similarly adequate supply; the breeding bulls, females, and pups 

 on the breeding rookeries are not disturbed ; there is no evidence or sign of impairment, 

 by driving, of the virility of males; the operations of driving and killing are conducted 

 skillfully and without inhumanity. 



10. The pelagic industry is conducted in an orderly manner and in a spirit of 

 acquiescence in the limitations imposed by the law. 



11. Pelagic sealing involves the killing of males and females alike, without 

 discrimination and in proportion as the two sexes coexist in the sea. The reduction 

 of males effected on the islands causes an enhanced proportion of females to be found 

 in the pelagic catch; hence this proportion, if it vary from no other cause, varies at 

 least with the catch upon the islands. In 1895 Mr. A. B. Alexander, on behalf of 

 the Government of the United States, found 62.3 per cent of females in the catch of 

 the Dora Siewerd in Bering Sea, and in 1896 Mr. Andrew Halkett, on behalf of the 

 Canadian government, found 84.2 in the catch of the same schooner in the same sea. 

 There are, no doubt, instances, especially in the season of migration and on the course 

 of the migrating herds, of catches containing a very different proportion of the two 

 sexes. 



12. The large proportion of females in the pelagic catch includes not only adult 

 females that are both nursing and pregnant, but also young seals that are not 

 pregnant, and others that have not yet brought forth young, with such also as have 

 recently lost their young through the various causes of natural mortality. 1 



13. The polygamous habit of the animal, coupled with an equal birth rate of the 

 two sexes, permits a large number of males to be removed with impunity from the 

 herd, while, as with other animals, any similar abstraction of females checks or 

 lessens the herd's increase, or, when carried further, brings about an actual diminution 

 of the herd. It is equally plain that a certain number of females may be killed 

 without involving the actual diminution of the herd, if the number killed do not 

 exceed the annual increment of the breeding herd, taking into consideration the 

 annual losses by death through old age and through incidents at sea. 



14. While, whether from a consideration of the birth rate or from an inspection 

 of the visible effects, it is manifest that the take of females in recent years has been 

 so far in excess of the natural increment as to lead to a reduction of the herd in the 

 degree related above, yet the ratio of the pelagic catch of one year to that of the 

 following has fallen off more rapidly than the ratio of the breeding herd of one year 

 to the breeding herd of the next. 2 



1 Statements on which, to base an estimate of the relative numbers of these sevei&l classes are 

 necessarily incomplete, but the following notes may serve as a partial guide : Townseml, Report, 1895 

 pp. 46, 47; Alexander, Report, 1895, pp. 142, 143; Macoun, Report. 1897, MSS. ; Lucas, Report, 1897, MSs! 



- The catch of the pelagic fleet, Canadian and American, in 1897 in Bering Sea was 16,657 seals. 

 In the summer of 1896 it was 29,500. The aggregate catch which directly influenced the herd of 1897 

 was 38,922, a number made up by adding to the summer's catch of 1896 the northwest coast catch in 

 the spring of 1897. Up to the present time, accordingly, the pelagic catch already taken (16,657), and 



