FUR-SEAL HEED OF ALASKA. 



11 



the seals killed are limited to 6^ pounds, 

 in order to exclude all these 3-year-olds 

 branded during the summer, you under- 

 stand the natives do kill down a little 

 more closely than our regulations allow, 

 for the reason that they need the meat, 

 and since they have to exclude all these 

 fine, fat seals over 6J pounds they go for 

 the little fellows a little more closely. 



The Chairman. How many seals were 

 killed last year for food by the natives? 



Mr. Lembkey. The limit was 2,500. 

 Speaking offhand, I think about 2,300 

 were killed. 



Q. Were any females killed? — A. No, 

 sir; not to my knowledge, and, as I stated, 

 I carefully interrogated these two gentle- 

 men who had charge of this killing, and 

 they stated that to their knowledge no 

 female was killed. 



Q. What class of males were killed by 

 by the natives for food? — A. Under 6^ 

 pounds 



(Hearing No. 14, p. 907, July 25, 1912, 

 H. Com. Exp. Dept. C. & L.) 



Lembkey swears that he an- 

 nually reserves from slaughter 

 1,000 3 year old male seals, be 

 fore any killing is done, for the 

 season in June. 



Mr. Lembkey. Before any killing was 

 done this summer, as has been the practice 

 for some years past following the bureau's 

 instructions, 1,000 of the choicest 3-year- 

 olds appearing in the first drives of the 

 season were reserved, for future breeders 

 and marked by shearing their heads, so as 

 to render their subsequent recognition 

 during the season an easy matter. These 

 seals, thus marked, were immune from 

 clubbing and were not killed. These 

 3-year-old seals the following year became 

 4-year-olds, the killing of which class in 

 general is prohibited. Only after the 

 1,000 3-year-olds, known as the breeding 

 reserve, is secured and marked does the 

 killing of seals for skins begin. The kill- 

 ing is confined only to the 2 and 3-year- 

 old immature males not required for pur- 

 poses of reproduction. To obtain these, 

 the breeding rookeries are not disturbed, 

 but the bachelors hauling grounds on 

 either island were driven every fifth or 

 sixth day if seals were found thereon in 

 sufficient numbers to justify driving. 

 The killing season begins on July 1 and 

 ends July 31, but one drive is always 

 made subsequently on August 10 to fur- 

 nish the natives with fresh meat during a 

 portion of the so-called "stagey" season 

 (when the seals shed their hair), which 

 begins August 10 and ends October 20, 



Drives for food should be made not of tener 

 than the needs of the natives in that re- 

 spect require. Drives for food on rookeries 

 remote from the villages should not be 

 made unless the carcasses actually are 

 necessary for natives' food or for food for 

 foxes, or for some other sound reason, 

 and in any event, care should be taken 

 to preserve for future use the carcasses of 

 such seals as are not immediately dis- 

 posed of. The number of seals to be 

 killed for natives' food for the fiscal year 

 beginning July 1, 1910, should not ex- 

 ceed 1,700 on St. Paul and 500 on St. 

 George. No female seal or seal having a 

 skill weighing under 5 pounds or more 

 than 7 pounds shall be killed during the 

 so-called "food -killing season." Care 

 shall be taken that no reserved or marked 

 bachelors be killed in the drives for food 

 or at any other time. 



[Instructions issued Mar. 31, 19U.] 



Identical with instructions of 1910. 

 (Hearing No. 10, pp. 483-486, April, 

 1912, H. Com. Exp. Dept. C. & L.) 



But Clark reports that these 

 reserved seals of June are all killed 

 as food seals in October following 

 or in the following spring. 



3. The reserve of bachelors. — Beginning 

 with the season of 1904, there has been set 

 aside each spring a special breeding re- 

 serve of 2,000 young males of 2 and 3 years 

 of age. These animals have been marked 

 by clipping the head with sheep shears, 

 giving them a whitish mark readily dis- 

 tinguishing them to the clubl^ers. They 

 are carefully exempted on the killing 

 field and released . 



This method of creating a breeding re- 

 serve seems open to considerable criti- 

 cism, and has apparently been only mod- 

 erately successful. The mark put upon 

 the animal is a temporary one. The fur 

 is replaced during the fall and winter, and 

 the following spring the marked seals can 

 not be recognized. The animals l^eing 2 

 and 3 years of age are still killable the 

 next season, the 2-year-olds in fact the 

 second season. A new lot of 2.000 is 

 clipped the next season, and these are 

 carefully exempted, but, except in so far 

 as animals of the previous season's mark- 

 ing are reclipped, they have no protection 

 the second season, and without doubt are 

 killed. 



If such is not the case, it is difficult to 

 understand what becomes of them. The 

 annual reservation from 1904 to 1907, both 

 seasons included, would aggregate 8,000 

 animals. These animals would be of ages 

 ranging from 8 to 5 years this season. The 



