54 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



ADDITIONAL TESTIMONY. 



The forejioinf>' testimony is that of scientists wliose knowledge of the 

 subject under discussion can not well be questioned. Speaking for 

 myself, personally, I am pleased to find my own conclusions (based on 

 a practical knowledge solely) so fully indorsed by learned and disinter- 

 ested men. 



In addition to the testimony already quoted, however, and in order 

 to strengthen the position taken, I append to my report the testimony 

 of statesmen, jurists, scientists, naturalists, shipmasters, sealers, seal 

 hunters, pelagic sealers, naval officers (Ameri(;an and J3ritish), mer- 

 chantmen, seamen, Indian hunters, native sealers. Treasury agents, 

 company agents, British and American Bering Sea Commissioners, fur 

 traders, furriers, fiir experts, customs officers, and men of all classes, 

 native and foreign, friends and enemies, who have had either the prac- 

 tical experience, the general information, or the scientific knowledge to 

 warrant them in making sworn statements on the subject at issue; and 

 a careful reading of the testimony introduced will show that their views 

 in general are in accord with mine, and sustain my position in every 

 particular. 



The quotations above referred to are taken from the American case 

 and counter case. 



RETROSPECTIVE AND EXPLANATORY. 



So much has already been said in contradiction of the theories 

 advanced by honest but mistaken men about overdriving of the young 

 males and its consequent result of impotency, of stampedes on the rook- 

 eries, and epidemics in the herd, by which so many pups were supposed 

 to be destroyed annually during the past decade, it is necessary for a 

 correct understanding of the contention that I go back a few years and 

 give a sketch of the causes which gave rise to such, until then, unheard 

 of theories which have been the direct cause of more than one-half the 

 troubles growing out of the fur-seal question in Bering Sea. 



As already shown by the testimony of Messrs. H. H. Mclntyre, T. F. 



Morgan, Daniel Webster, J. C. Eedpath, Dr. Koyes, and others who 



were on the seal islands for many years, it was not until 188G the first 



unmistakable decrease of the seal herd was ap))arent. Had the facta 



been reported immediately to the Department and the true cause of 



such a sudden shrinkage shown, steps might have been taken which 



would have prevented further pelagic sealing, or at least an addition to 



the sealing fleet; but unfortunately an overzealous Treasury agent 



reported an increase of nearly 2,000,000 since Elliott's measurements 



and estimates, some fourteen years earlier; and again, in 1888, he tells 



the Department: 



I am happy to be able to report that although late lauding the breeding rookeries 

 are filled out to the lines of measurement heretofore made, and some of them much 

 beyond those lines, showing conclusively that seal life is not being depleted, but la 

 fully up to the estimates given in my report of 1887. (Report of G. R. Tingle, 1888.) 



When that report was written, and before it was written, everyone 

 on the seal islands knew there were indications of a decrease of the 

 seal herd, and the employees of the lessees so reported at the time to 

 the superintendent, Dr. H. H. Mclntyre, who tells us: 



I repeatedly ])oinled out to our company and to the special Treasury agents during 

 the seasons of 1887, 1888, .and 1889 that the seals were rapidly diminishing, and that 

 in order to get the full quota allowed by law we were obliged to kill, in increasing 

 numbers in each of those years, animals that should have been allowed to attain 

 greater size; and, finally, the catch of 1889 was mostly of this class. (See Mclntyre 

 to Jeft'ries, December 15, 1890, Appendix.) 



