712 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



doubtless truly sleeping and apathetic bulls. They had probably 

 fought for a i^lace on the breeding grounds, and finding that their 

 chances of getting harems were scanty, they had withdrawn to the 

 sand beaches and were taking life easy. Mr. Elliott repeatedly asserts 

 that these bulls were impotent and in virile, but as he records no dis- 

 sections or other examinations designed to show this we are not under 

 obligation to accept the mere statement. In like manner the terrible 

 effects charged against driving are not substantiated by a single dis- 

 section, the only means of demonstrating such effects. 



In this connection it is worthy of note that Mr. Elliott is surprised 

 at the failure of his own theory that the driving killed practically 

 every seal driven and rejected. He is watching the released seals 

 return to the water from the killing ground and says: "To my surprise 

 most of these seals headed directly back for Polovina, jumping in rapid 

 dolphin leaps and swimming rapidly." Again he recounts how he 

 "saw three released seals sporting in the village lake. * * * They 

 seemed to be ijerfectly happy," etc. The following day he found a seal 

 dead on the shore of the lagoon. He remarks that the seal had died 

 "last night from the strain or effect of that drive overland from Tolstoi 

 or English Bay." We have, however, no record of the autopsy by 

 which this verdict was established, and this is the only dead seal which 

 Mr. Elliott has cited to support his theory of the great evil effects of 

 overdriving. 



Pages 492, 493 : On these and subsequent pages Mr. Elliott has given 

 a set of statistics regarding the drives, which show plainly a fact that 

 he evidently overlooked — namely, that the great deficiency in bache- 

 lors was confined to those of killable age. He states that of 4,001 ani- 

 mals driven, 92 per cent were turned away; of 4,323 driven, 90i per 

 cent were turned away; again, of 1,805 driven, 87 per cent rejected; 

 of 1,929 driven, 88 per cent were rejected, etc. He notes that the bulk 

 of those rejected were yearlings. The dearth of bachelors was there- 

 fore not due to deficiency in the birth rate of the previous year. Abun- 

 dance of the yearlings answered for that. 1 he deficiency in older bache- 

 lors is very simply explained by the known anticipation in 1889 of the 

 quota of 1890 by killing its seals in advance Had there been no year- 

 lings in 1890 Mr. Elliott's theory of "impotent" and "invirile" bulls 

 might have had some foundation to rest upon, but it is made in the 

 face of the plainest evidence against the theory. 



Page 501 : Here, again, under date of July 19, we have one of that 

 class of statements which are all too common in this report, and for 

 which there seems to be no excuse. Mr. Elliott states: " Not a single 

 young male seal on Zoltoi sands this morning (4,30 a. m.); not one has 

 hauled there thus far this season." By turning to page 533 of this 

 report we find that a drive was made from Zoltoi that very morning, 

 and that a previous drive had been made on the 24tli of June. 



Page 504: Mr. Elliott writes in his field notes, under date of August 

 9, as follows: "That southwest gale of the 30th and 31st of July, which 

 I experienced and followed so closely on St. George, seems to have 

 destroyed a great many pups over here on Garbotch sea margin. There 

 are 17 dead pups lying half buried in the sands of Zoltoi right before 

 and under my eyes." This is a fair example of the observations on 

 which Mr. Elliott establishes his conclusions. This same phenomenon 

 of dead pups was noted by us in 1896 and 1897. There were 33 bodies 

 on Zoltoi in the former year. On Tolstoi sand beach 230 were counted 

 and many others on the sand beaches of Northeast Point, Polovina and 

 Zapadni. They appeared after the first unusually high surf. Inspec- 



