378 



ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



August. The seals are not ^^ coming later j^^'^ nor are they changed in any 

 respect except as to sadly diminished numbers and the practical extinc- 

 tion of effective male life on the breeding grounds. Illustrative of the 

 extreme regularity of the arrival of these animals every season through- 

 out a period of twenty consecutive years, I present the following state- 

 ment of the annual dates of first arrivals of fur seals for each year from 

 1870 to 1890, inclusive. These dates are taken from the Treasury agent's 

 journal on the seal islands. 



The first drives for food each year on St. Paul Island, have been made 

 with great regularity between the 15th and 21st of May throughout the 

 time specified above; and also on St. George Island. The bulls all 

 arrived prior to and by the 1st of June; the cows all arrived prior to 

 and by the 20th of July of every year. 



AS TO THE CAUSE FOR THIS DECREASE ON THE PRIBILOV ROOKERIES. 



This point of inquiry does not require elaboration. The reason is 

 plain ; the cause fairly asserts itself — overdriving since 1883, on land, 

 together with the spear, bullet, and bucJcshot of the pelagic sealer since 1886. 

 The overdriving has chiefly robbed the rookeries of that supply of fresh 

 male life absolutely required every season and the water pirate has 

 destroyed the females with unborn and born young.^ It is needless to 



• This silly cry was dinned into my ears by the white employees of the lessees, 

 incessantly, from the middle of June, 1890, until the end of July, 1890; these men, 

 however, knew better; but that was the way, in their estimation, to hide the truth 

 from ignorant Treasury agents: one man only, of these white agents of the lessees, 

 was manly enough to admit the fallacy of this argument when I faced him with the 

 ruin of the herd. His name is Daniel Webster, a veteran New London, Conn., sealer, 

 who first began his operations on these islands in 1868, and has been here ever since, 

 with a slight intermission, when he passed one sealing season on the Russian seal 

 islands, in Bering Sea. He had, also, prior to this, experience as a "raider" on Rob- 

 bens Reef, Ochotsk Sea. 



20ut of 77 fur-seal skins seized on the Maitie T. Dyer (schooner), only 6 of them 

 came from animals without pups (i. e., 71 were pregnant females). They (the seal- 

 ers) had little black pup skins fresh cut out from the womb; womb moist; 17 fresh 

 female fur-seal skins, and every one of these bodies had a pup in them. These men 

 declared that they got only 1 out of every 5 that they shot, that is, for the 5 hit they 

 only got 1 of them. The number of shots fired they did not count ; but of the 5 seals 

 that they undertook to get that they hit they usually got but 1 of them. — (United 

 States Collector Emmons, Oonalaska, August 14, 1890.) " 



