ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 275 



shot by hunters on marauding vessels operating this season about 200 

 miles from the seal islands were found to be mothers giving- milk. 



Agent Murray also reports that on August 19, in company with the 

 British commissioners, he visited Tolstoi rookery, on St. Paul Island, 

 and found thousands of dead pups, the mothers of which had been 

 killed at sea, and he further says that in his judgment 20,000 to 30,000 

 dead paps were lying on the rookeries of the islands starved to death 

 because of the destruction of the cows during their journey to and 

 from the feeding grounds. 



It is known that after giving birth to their young the mothers leave 

 the rookeries and go out to sea for food, of which fact the hunters, who 

 resort to tbe feeding grounds and slaughter the seals in great numbers, 

 are well aware. Further testimony upon this subject, supported by 

 photographic evidence, svill be given by Mr. J. Stanley-Brown in his 

 report to the Department, he having visited the rookeries at a later 

 date than that given above. 



It is claimed that the devastation of the rookeries is partly due to 

 overdriving the seals from the hauling to the killing grounds; of the 

 injury which may have been done in the i)ast from that cause I personally 

 can not speak, but overdriving did not occur this year. The agents 

 who have been on the islands the last two years report that the driving 

 has been carefully done at all times. But admitting all that is asserted 

 in this respect, and that in times past, when the lessees were taking 

 100,000 seals every year, some were occasionally driven farther or 

 oftener than they should have been, the damage was to males only and 

 not to the females. 



It is to be remembered that none but young male seals are ever 

 driven or killed upon the islands, and even were a portion of them 

 injured or destroyed by overdriving, which is denied by the agents of 

 the company as well as by those of the Government, so long as there 

 were enough males left to replenish the rookeries there could be no 

 injury done to the breeding herds. This is a well-known principle in 

 the breeding of domestic animals, and is equally true in the propaga- 

 tion of seals. 



It has been reported that there was a dearth of bulls last year, and 

 consequently a large number of barren cows. This is one of the points 

 to which I gave particular attention, and, after a careful examination 

 of the rookeries, found that the claim was altogether untenable, for 

 not one-tenth of 1 per cent of the cows this year were without pup 

 seals at their sides. A careful count of all the idle bulls (bulls with- 

 out harems) between the dates of July 12 and 20, inclusive, revealed 

 the fact that there were over 1,200 vigorous bulls without cows on the 

 breeding rookeries of St. Paul Island. There were hundreds of bulls, 

 too, with only one to four cows each, and many hundreds mixed up 

 with the bachelors who were unable to gain a foothold upon the breed- 

 ing rookeries. Twenty-five per cent of some of the drives were bulls, 

 large enough to go upon the breeding grounds, and had evidently been 

 driven off by the older and stronger ones after a hard contest, as was 

 shown by the numerous wounds on their bodies. There were also hun- 

 dreds of idle bulls in the shallow water in front of the rookeries lying 

 upon rocks, but unable to secure a location on the breeding grounds. 



I therefore conclude that whatever may have been the condition in 

 former years relative to an insuiScieucy of bulls, there certainly was a 

 surplus this year. Less than 30,000 male seals have been killed on the 

 islands by the lessees in the last two years, consequently large num- 

 bers have grown to maturity and have attempted to establish them- 



