ORAL ARGUxMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS. 257 



that the number of seals kiUod in that year, 1801, was 47,940, and iu 

 proof of this they have i^ublished a letter from the Chief Manager of 

 the Russian American Colonies to the Eussian American Company, 

 written at Sitka, October 14, 1801, containing a Keport upon the oper- 

 ations of the Company for that year. The reference for that is the 

 United States Counter Case, page 105. One would suppose that was 

 satisfactory evidence of the number killed by the Company. He says — 

 this is an extract of course : 



Iu the course of tliis year — 



that is 1861 5 the date of the letter is October 14th 



In the course of this year 47,940 seal skius hav-e been taken from the islands of 

 St. Paul and St. Geoi-<;e, of wliieh nuuiher 24,943 salted, 3,000 bachelors, dried, and 

 2,500 greys have to be sent to New York; and 12,000 dried skins will now be sent by 

 the ship C~aritza to Cronstadt. 



The British Commissioners, in this extraordinary method of commi- 

 tation, make the figures for that year 20,009. The Manager of the 

 Company informs us that it is 47,040. 



Sir Charles Russell. — One is shipped from the island, and the 

 other may be killed on the island. The two figures are not inconsistent. 



Mr. Phelps. — Why not? He describes what had become of all 

 these — where they are all sent. Tliey are all sent to market. 



Sir Charles Russell. — You have been speaking yourself of not 

 glutting the market. 



Mr. Phelps. — They are all sent to market. They are not only killed, 

 but sent to market; and they only shew the fallacy of figures that are 

 arrived at by taking one unreliable and unproved sum, and subtracting 

 it from another unreliable and unproved sum and taking the dilference 

 as the basis. 



At Section 779 of the British CommiSvsioners Report is the authority 

 for the years 1862 to 1807. That is their figures. Most of them they 

 have marked with an interrogation point, as I said before. They by no 

 means undertake to vouch them; — I am not to be inferred as say in g 

 that they misrepresent this, becanse they say themselves that these 

 figures both inclusive, have been filled hyijothetically by Elliott. They 

 say: 



The figures for the years are therefore iar from satisfactory. 



Those figures of course disappear, because in the first place the Com- 

 missioners say themselves that they are unsatisfactory: they appear, 

 in the next place, to be based upon a hypothesis, and the man who 

 invents the hypothesis, Elliott, says they are unreliable. They disap- 

 pear into the air. 



We have put translations and facsimiles of the official Correspond- 

 ence of the American Company consisting of Reports from the wit- 

 nesses, and orders to the managers, in the Counter Case at pages 105 

 to 100, and at page 420. 



I will read the I'eport for 1802 — Ave have seen what 1801 was. This 

 is an extract. It is the Reportof the Chief Manager at Sitka. He says : 



In spite of the great slaughter of seals on St. Paul and St. George they are every 

 year occupying more space with their rookeries; and I therefore penult ted the man- 

 ager to take 75,000 skins on the former island, instead of 50,000; and on the latter 

 5,000, an increase of 2,000. Seeing now, however, that the demand for sealskiua 

 for New York does not go beyond 20,000, I will alter this arrangement, and instruct 

 him to pre])are 25,000 salted sealskins and 20,000 dried on St. Paul and not to take 

 more than 3,000 on St. George, as heretot'ore. The soalskiua romaiuing over cuunot 

 epoik as they are thoroughly saltctj. 



B S, PT XV 17 



