ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 711 



records it is found wanting. There was no feverisli baste and undue 

 increase of the driving in 1890. As a matter of fact the amount of 

 driving done is, and has been, largely regulated by the ability of the 

 men to handle the work. 



Page 407 : We hesitate to call attention to the statement of the weight 

 of th(^ fur-seal pup again. But this matter is a fair sample of the way 

 in which Mr. Elliott handles his facts and figures. Here the pup is (> 

 to 7i pounds in weight, and 12 to 14 inches long. On page 336 of this 

 report the weight is given at 10 to 11 pounds. The remark here made 

 that a single male and female of this class was handled, explains the 

 inadequacy of Mr, Elliott's ideal of the fur seal pup at birth, but does 

 not excuse it. 



Page 458: Mr. Elliott here asks again a question he has many times 

 raised: " Where is the new blood which must take the place of the old 

 and enfeebled sires before us, already failing to meet the demands of 

 the hour on every side and ahead of us! " We may refer Mr. Elliott to 

 his own figures, to be found in his field notes (p. 481 and following), 

 where he records the turning back of 1,175 young half bulls. He tells 

 us that it was not thought worth while to drive ofif the bachelors from 

 Zapadui Head, Otter Island, and Sea Lion liock in 1890, as had been 

 done in 1889. As these places are the favorite haunts of tiie half bulls, 

 and as they are to be found in every angle and turn of the breeding 

 grounds, we may infer that there was no scarcity of them. That the 

 rookeries to day contain fully 10,000 able-bodied bulls at least 7 years 

 of age, is conclusive proof of the matter. 



Page 481 : At the foot of this page we have the beginning of a series of 

 tabulations, already referred to, showing in detail the number of pods 

 handled on the killing ground, the animals killed, and the rejected half, 

 bulls. The footing up of 'the number of half bulls rejected gives a total 

 of 1,175, and only a part of the drives of the season are recorded. 



Page 482: It is difficult after reading the paragraph on this page, of 

 which the following sentence is the beginning, without wondering 

 what Mr. Elliott has been talking about in his bitter arraignment of 

 the process of driving: 



" I should lemark that the driving of the seals has been very carefully 

 done, no extra rushing and smothering of the herd, as was frequently 

 done in 1872." One instinctively contrasts this with the statement 

 made on page 484: '^ Even if they do manage to endure (some of them, 

 not many) all of this intense physical suffering, exhaustion, straining 

 of tendons, congestions of lungs and brains, and heart suffusions," etc. 

 The contrast which Mr. Elliott has drawn between the driving of 1890 

 and 1872 shows two things very clearly: first, that in his 1890 report, 

 except in this instance, he has grossly misrepresented the kind of driving- 

 done, and second, that in his 1872 report he intentionally suppressed 

 damaging evidence against the methods of driving then employed. We 

 are inclined to believe, however, that the "dropping of exhausted seals 

 along the road in 1872-1874" is an exaggeration of such accidents as 

 must occur in the handling of the drives when the weather becomes 

 suddenly unfavorable. Such accidents have always occurred and must 

 occur. But they are few. 



Page 483: In view of the repeated claims of dearth of young bulls 

 and breeding bulls we can not refrain from again calling attention to 

 Mr. Elliott's own refutation of this claim. Here he states that " an 

 enormous number of 5 and 6 year old bulls were in it (the drive) for 

 the whole number driven." Again a "large number of somnolent, 

 apathetic bulls" are stretched out on Polovina sands. They were 



