500 APPENDIX. 



time, however, the counts on which this estimate is based were made 

 about the 13th of September, before pelagic sealing had ceased, whereas 

 the deaths from starvation continue as late as October 15, or nearly a 

 month after pelagic sealing closes, this time being required for pups of 

 that age to starve. The estimate of 20,000, taken at its full value, 

 therefore, must fall below the actual conditions. From the pelagic 

 catch of 31,000 for 1894 and the known preponderance of females which 

 it contained, we may assume that fully 25,000 pups starved to death in 

 that season. 



Crowley, 1894: Page 460. 



What has been said in the preceding note (Hamlin, p. 451) applies with 

 equal force here, as these are doubtless the data on which the former 

 statement was made. These counts include pups which died from other 

 causes as well as from starvation, but at the same time they fall short 

 of the actual conditions, because they were made before half the period 

 during which pelagic sealing acts as a cause of death was over. 



Crowley, 1894: Page 461. 



The alternative proposition here put forward, namely, " the immediate 

 killing of every seal on the Pribilof Islands," can not be too strongly 

 condemned, even though coming, as it does, from an officer of the 

 Government. There can be no more absurd or unworthy method of set- 

 tling the fur-seal question proposed than this, Mr. Crowley has feel- 

 ingly and justly set forth the evil effects of pelagic sealing in the 

 slaughter of " mother seals in young or in milk," leaving their mother- 

 less young, "with flattened sides, feeble movements, and languid cries," 

 to die on the rookeries. But his proposition to kill off the seals would 

 necessarily involve all this inhuman waste on a wholesale scale and 

 lodge the odium for it for all time on the Government of the United 

 States. 



But in addition to all this, the method has not the merit of being 

 capable of attaining the end sought. It would not be possible to totally 

 exterminate the race of animals without keeping up the slaughter for 

 a period of many years, as all the animals are never present at one time 

 nor in one season. A hunted remnant must remain, which if left 

 unmolested, would restock the rookeries and reopen the whole question. 

 Such a settlement of the fur-seal question would be as ineffective as it 

 would be disgraceful. It should be remembered that diplomatic dis- 

 putes of long standing can not be settled in a day, and the fur- seal 

 herd under protection would be one of the most valuable pieces of 

 property in the possession of any nation. 



Crowley, 1895: Page 479. 



The estimate of 27,000 starved pups for 1895 is again vitiated by the 

 inclusion of a certain number of the early dead pups, as already noted 

 in connection with the estimate for 1894. The counts here given are, 

 however, probably more complete and accurate, as they were made 

 after October 1. But this still left a subsequent period in which starva- 

 tion acted as a cause of death, and the lateness of the count doubtless 

 involved the loss of many of the early ones through the action of the 

 elements and the hunger of the foxes. We can not, of course, say 

 exactly what the death rate from starvation was in 1895, but it was 

 large, and judging from the increased pelagic catch (44,000) in Bering 

 Sea for this season, we may assume that it was not far from 30,000. 



