706 ■ ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



sliown by the quota, has been about 1 to 5. But Mr. Elliott probably 

 never took these fij;ures seriously or studied their meaning. The more 

 one exauiines them the worse they appear. The census was the most 

 important piece of work Mr. Elliott had to do, and it is worthless. 



Page 331 : The explanation here quoted of the method of enumera- 

 tion followed in 1872-1874 has already been treated in its proper con- 

 nection, and need not here be mentioned. 



Page 335: The impression is given in the description of this diagram 

 that this 100 square feet of breeding area was actually staked out and 

 measured. It may have beeu so measured, but, in our estimation and 

 from our experience in numerous attempts to locate breeding areas for 

 measurement, it was impossible to have made the measurements with 

 the animals on the ground ; and if the boundaries were merely noted 

 then and measured after the lapse of months, such measurement would 

 be merely guesswork, and it does not deserve the importance here 

 attached to it. 



Page 336: The two statements of fact here laid down by Mr. Elliott 

 as a guide to the projier understanding of his argument stand sorely 

 in need of correction. In the first place, the" nubiles" (2-year-old cows) 

 for which allowance is made were not and are not to be found upon the 

 rookeries in the breeding season, nor until about August 1. In the 

 second place, the proportion of females to males here given makes no 

 allowance for absentees, and consequently the number must be doubled. 

 Further,in his statementsof factwe find that "anewlyborn (2-weeks ( ?)" 

 old pup is. 14 inches in length and weighs from 10 to 11 pounds. In the 

 next breath he tells us that the i)up from 1 to 3 weeks old is "a scant 

 foot" in length. And all tliis occurs after he has told us, in his 1872-1874 

 report, in one place that the newly born pup is 3 to 4 pounds weight; 

 in another, 5 to 7i, and in still another, C to 7i. Furthermore, he here 

 tells us that "no fur seal, old or young, when resting on the breeding 

 grounds, stretches itself out at full length on the rocks or earth unless 

 injured in the lumbar regions." As a matter of fact, the stret(;hing 

 out at full length is a favorite position for healthy animals. Probably 

 the whole difficulty with this labored explanation of Mr. Elliott's method 

 of computing the seals of 1872-1874 lies in the fact that it was not pub- 

 lished until 1891 and, doubtless, not written until 1800 or 1891. 



Page 345: We have already referred to the shore extension of Lagoon 

 rookery and the absence of any explanation regarding it. Though the 

 rookery, according to Mr. Elliott, has extended itself to doub!<^ its 

 original length, this is compensated for by a reduction of the width to 

 12 feet from 100. In this way a reduction from 37,000 seals in 1872 to 

 9,000 in 1890 is obtained for this rooliery. 



Page 346: In connection with Mr. Elliott's discussion of Lukanin and 

 Kitovi rookeries in his 1872-1874 report we have called attention to 

 the strong evidence of the grossly exaggerated character of the original 

 estimates. We may again examine those of 1890. We have for these 

 two rookeries in this year a total of 100,000 "breeding seals and young." 

 He calls these rookeries the "worst wrecks on the islands," because 

 there were three and one half times more seals there in 1872 than in 

 1890, overlooking the fact that his total figures for St. Paul show a 

 reduction for the whole island to one-fourth the i)Oi)u1ation in 1872. 

 The total population of Lukanin and Kitovi rookeries for 1897 was less 

 than 20,000, a reduction since 1890, assuming Mr. Elliott's figures, to 

 one-fifth. We do not believe such a reduction has occurred, but these 

 considerations show the gross exaggeration of Mr. Elliott's two estimates. 



Page 353: The fact here stated that "172 old breeding bulls" had 



