EXHIBIT II. AN EXHIBIT OF THE FACTS WHICH SHOW US 

 THE SOLE FIRST CAUSE OF THAT COMMERCIAL RUIN OF 

 OUR FUR-SEAL HERD WHICH WE NOW OBSERVE ON THE 

 PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



If it were not for these records elaborately and systematically made 

 on those desolate hauling grounds, which I published in 1874 and 1890, 

 it would be fairly impossible to get an adequate idea of what an im- 

 mense herd of fur seals was in existence at the time and when we took 

 possession of Alaska in 1867. 



Then, when that idea is grasped, and it is made clear that ever since 

 1857, up to the hour of 1867 when the herd became ours, this wild 

 life had remained at about a steady annual number of 4,700,000 seals 

 of all classes, we ask, What have we done to reduce it, so by this year 

 of 1913, all that we find surviving of it are only 190,555 seals of all 

 classes ? 



Why did we lose this herd, when the Russians easily kept it from 

 1857 to 1867 in that fine form and number? 



The answer is made easy in the light of the following facts : 



I. It is a fact of indisputable record, that the Russians never killed 

 or disturbed the female seals on the rookeries of St. Paul and St. 

 George Island, from start to finish of their possession of them. 



II. It is a fact of indisputable record, that from 1786-87 up to 1800 

 the Russians annually took from 120,000 to 60,000 young male, and 

 yearling seals from these hauling grounds; and during all that time 

 never took any seals at sea, nor were these seals taken at sea by any 

 other people save the few annually secured by the northwest coast 

 Indians. 



III. It is a fact of indisputable record that the Russians, begmning 

 m 1800 with an annual catch of 40,000 young male seals and year- 

 Imgs, by 1817 had the greatest difficulty in gettmg that number then; 

 and notes of protest against the killing on the islands were sent to 

 Sitka by the caretaker, Kazean Shaishnikov, of St. Pauls Island, 

 urging the governor of the R. A. Co. to rest the seals from killing for 

 a term of years. No pelagic sealmg was known to the Russians 

 durmg this period of any land. 



IV. It is a fact of indisputable record that while the protest of 

 Shaishnikov was noticed favorably by the governor, yet the du-ec- 

 tors of the R. A. Co. at St. Petersburg did not consent; that tiiey 

 renewed their orders to kill and sent one of their number, Gen. Yah- 

 novsky, out from St. Petersburg in 1818 to the seal islands, charged 

 with the business of examining into the cause of this loss of surplus 

 male life on the islands. 



V. It is a fact of mdisputable record that Yahnovsky in 1820, 

 after spendmg the entire season of 1819 on the Pribilof hauling 

 grounds and rookeries, made a confidential, detailed report which 

 declared that this unmense declme in the life of the fur-seal herd was 

 due entirely to the annual killing of all of the young male seals and 



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