340 



ORAL ARGUMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS. 



It is difficult to discover how tlie United States Commis- 

 sioners arrived at this figure, 2,100. It seems more correct 

 to place it at 1,707*. In which case the yearly killing of 

 males out of a "herd" of 2,380,000 ought not to exceed 

 64,012 acccording to their Diagrams. 



Table (ft) showing the numier of male seals of various ages represented in 

 Diagram (A), of the U. S. Commissioners as making up the " herd" of 

 40,025 male seals. 



-year-olds 5, 000 



" 3,200 



Pups 10,000 



1 

 2 

 3 



4 



6 



6 



7 



8 



9 

 10 

 11 

 12 

 13 

 14 

 15 

 16 

 17 

 18 

 19 

 20 



(( 

 It 

 <i 



« 



W 



(I 

 it 



young bulls 



(greeu). 



13,620 breeding bulls 

 (yellow). 



Total 40,025 



•Note. — This figure (1,707) is arrived at by examining tbe succes- 

 Bive diminutions of particular classes of seals due to natural causes 

 and to land killing. An examination of Tables (a) and (c), shows 

 that natural causes reduce the 3-year-olds from 2,400 to 2,000 in a year, 

 or 16A^ per cent., and that the similar decrease of the 4-year-olds is 

 2,000 to 1,840, or 8 per cent. Now, from the Tables it is seen that in 

 one year 3,200 male 2-year olds are reduced by natural causes to 2,400, 

 and these 2,400 males are again reduced by land killing to 1,900, that 

 is to say, 500 are land-killed. These 1,900 are next year reduced from 

 natural causes by 16^ per cent., that is, to 1,587, and thus, in order to 

 bring them down to the 1,000 shown in the Table, 587 must be killed 

 on land. The 1,000 are again reduced by natural causes by Spercent., 

 viz., to 920, of which if 620 are killed on land, we get the 300 5-year- 

 olds shown in the Table. The total annual killing on land would 

 thus be — 



500 3-year-old8. 



587 4 " 



620 5 " 



Total 1,707 



