ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 713 



tion showed that they were rotten and had been long dead. The simple 

 explanation of their presence on the sand beaches was that the surf 

 had washed them from the neighboring- rookeries and deposited them 

 there. This note, made the basis of an incorrect conclusion by Mr. 

 Elliott is, however, important at the present time, because it shows that 

 then, as now, there existed the same natural mortality among young 

 pups, due to trampling and TJncinaria. Of this Mr. Elliott was not 

 aware; and instead of seeking by examination to establish the cause of 

 death he jumped at the conclusion that the surf had killed thein. 



CONCLUSION. 



In concluding this examination of Mr. Elliott's report for 1890 we 

 must again express our regret that it was ever written or printed. It 

 adds absolutely no knowledge to the subject, while it is the source of 

 needless error and confusion. It is wholly lacking both in the methods 

 and spirit of scientific investigation. Mr. Elliott evidently enteied 

 upon his work with a preconceived theory, and bent his energies to 

 the establishment of this theorj^ The theory — the injurious effects of 

 driving upon the males — he tells us he substituted for the theory of 

 the destruction of females by pelagic sealing, because he believed the 

 latter to be inadecjuate to account for the decline in the herd. 



The only reasonable place in which to seek for the cause of decline 

 was the breeding herd itself. Mr. Elliott, in his investigations of 1890, 

 except for repeating in a perfunctory manner his erroneous survey and 

 estimate of 1872-1874, paid absolutely no attention to the breeding seals. 

 He sought the cause of decline in the bachelor herd. He found the 

 bachelors greatly reduced in nun^ber. He asserted that they were being 

 driven to death, and that none were left to replenish the failing stock 

 of breeding males. He asserted that those of the latter class to be 

 found on the rookeries were impotent, theirvirility havingbeen destroyed 

 by previous driving. 



His own figures and observations, howev^er, show that these asser- 

 tions were without foundation. He records a proportionately adequate 

 rejection of half bulls from the killing fields. By his own estimates 

 there was an adequate supjdy of bulls on the breeding grounds and a 

 surplus of reserve male life which was not called upon. It is true that 

 he holds this male life to be impotent and worthless, but there is not a 

 single recorded dissection or examination to j)rove the assertion. Nor 

 does he record a single dissection to substantiate the injurious effects of 

 driving upon the young males which he so loudly denounces. But one 

 instance of death from driving is recorded by him, and in the absence 

 of any autopsy examination we are not bound to accept the cause of 

 death assigned. 



Mr. Elliott in 1890 reiterated all his mistakes of 1872-1874, without 

 correcting a single one. He treated his earlier work as infallible, except 

 in the one all-important generalization in which it was correct. He was 

 in 1874 unable to locate the 2-year-old cows. There is no record of 

 any renewal of the search for them, and they are again wrongly assigned 

 to a period when they are not present at all. He again failed to appre 

 ciate the relation between the cows present at the height of the season 

 and the actual number belonging to the herd; at the time when his 

 census was made not more than half of them being present. He did 

 not discover the presence of the destructive agency TJncinaria as a 

 cause of the death of pups, though he records information which shows 

 that it was at work before his eyes. He credited pelagic sealing with 



