234 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



number of skins obtained, that it was impossible to secure tlie number 

 allowed by the lease; that we were merely torturing the young- seals, 

 injuring the future life and vitality of tlie breeding rookeries, to the 

 detriment of the lessees, natives, and the Government. 



On Sunday, July 20, all the rookeries representing any male seals 

 were driven from English Bay, Middle Hill, Tolstoi, Lukanuon, Kee 

 tavia, and Rocky Point, and about 4,620 seals Avere brought to the kill- 

 ing held. Seven hundred and eighty were killed, and 83 per cent were 

 turned away. On the same day, at Northeast Point, they Icilled 4(36, 

 which, added to those taken at the other rookeries, make a grand total 

 of 1,246. 



This and the killing on the 19th are the only instances recorded dur- 

 ing the season when the daily killing reached 1,000. Comparing the 

 killing with those of the same dates last year, we find that on July 19, 

 1889, from Southwest Bay hauling ground alone, 1,987 were killed, and 

 on July 20, 1889, from the Beef Rookery and Zoltoi hauling grounds, 

 l,9i;3 were killed, and never were there such percentages turned away 

 during the entire season, nor in any previous season, to my knowledge, 

 as in that of 1890. It is true, however, that the Alaska Commercial 

 Company could and did take smaller seals last season than the present 

 lessees can take, because of the differences in the tax paid by them; 

 yet there have been no 2-year olds of an average size turned away 

 this season. They were all immediately clubbed to swell the season's 

 catcli, which was far below the number allowed for this year— a condi- 

 tion of affairs that will convey to the Department, in language far more 

 convincing than mine, the fact that the seals are not here. 



The North American Commercial Company's agent, Mr. George R. 

 Tingle, used every effort to have the drives made so as to have no 

 unnecessary loss of seal life, and he would have made the season a most 

 successful one for the company if the seals had returned to the rookeries 

 as in the past. 



It is evident that the many evils preying upon seal life — the killing 

 of the seals in the Pacific Ocean, along the Aleutian Islands, and as 

 they come through the passes to the Bering Sea, by the pirates in these 

 waters, and the indiscriminate slaughter upon the islands regardless 

 of the future life of the breeding rookeries— have at last, with their 

 combined destructive power, reduced these rookeries to their present 

 impoverished condition, and to such an unequal distribution of ages and 

 sex that it is but a question of a few years, unless immediately attended 

 to, before the seal family of the Pribilof group of islands will be a thing 

 of the past. Notwithstanding the fact that the seals were looked upon 

 as inexhaustible and were ohicially reported to be increasing as late as 

 1888, the time has suddenly come when experiment and imagination 

 must cease and the truth be told. Absolute protection is the only safe- 

 guard for the rookeries, and the only step to be taken with safety. The 

 seal meat necessary for the native's food is all that should be killed, 

 under existing circumstances. Much can be written on this subject, 

 many theories may be advanced, all of which we have had for the pa-^t 

 twenty years, to the evident loss of seal life; but the facts presented in 

 the accompanying tables demonstrate with mathematical certainty the 

 fearful decrease of the seals. And here 1 will say I heartily concur with 

 my worthy predecessor, Mr. George R. Tingle, who in his ofticial report 

 of 1887 used the follosving language: 



The Department can not place too high an estimate on the valno of this seal ])rop- 

 erty, and the Government, I am sure, will not yield to any demands which would 

 make it possihle to accomplish the destruction of her S(!al rookeries and seal life, 

 which under judicious management and protection by law may be perpetuated 

 iudelinitoly. 



