FUR-SEAL HERD OF ALASKA. 9 



was the reason for their unusual amiability. He noted also that a great proportion of 

 the supposed cows scattered about were bachelors. 



******* 

 The result of these regulations can not be felt before 1907, as has in effect been stated. 

 During the interval which must elapse before that time a steady decrease in bulls will 

 be encountered. The closest killing on land occurred during the seasons of 1902 and 

 J.903. In the latter season the lessees released from the drives on St. Paul only 983 

 small seals. This practical annihilation of bachelors for this year will be felt on the 

 rookeries four years thereafter, or in 1907. 



******* 



LIMIT TO PROCKEATIVE POWER OF BULLS. 



Much has been said of the wonderful procreative power of bulls, and the theory has 

 been advanced that a bull can serve without discomfort as many cows as he is able to 

 get and hold. 



.Our experience this summer has convinced us that there is a limit to a bull's capacity 

 and that the bulls on the rookeries at the height of the season had come nearer to 

 reaching it than ever before to our knowledge. When it was possible on July 13 to 

 penetrate the mass of breeding seals on the Reef, and on July 14 that on Zapadni, 

 meeting with no more opposition than could be met successfully by two men armed 

 with light poles, it must Ije believed that the bulls at these places were taxed to such 

 a limit as to be shorn of most of their aggressiveness. On July 16 Mr. Judge with two 

 men went through the mass under Hutchinson Hill on the plateau near the shore line, 

 and experienced but little trouble. To have done this five years ago with the same 

 mass would have been impossible. 



******* 



The present scarcity of bulls is attributable directly to close killing on land, froni 

 which not enough bachelors were allowed to escape from the killing fields to maintain 

 the requisite proportion of bulls. 



For the last two years, however, regulations have been in force on the islands as the 

 result of which a considerable number of bachelors are exempted from killing and 

 allowed to escape. The animals thus saved are not old enough to appear upon the 

 rookeries. It will be necessary for two more years to elapse ])efore the animals may be 

 counted upon. From that time, however, with the continuance of the regulations, 

 it is believed that an ample supply of bulls will be present. 



PRESENT REGULATIONS SHOULD BE CONTINUED. 



Since it appears that a scarcity of bulls is threatened on the islands, and, in fact, 

 has occurred actually on several of the rookery spaces on St. Paul, any change in the 

 present regulations looking to a lessening of the restrictions placed on killing on the 

 islands would be wholly unwise. 



Respectfully 



W. I. Lembkey, 

 Agent in Charge Seal Islands. 



The Secretary of Commerce and Labor. 



So much for Mr. Lembkey in 1905. Did he continue these regu- 

 lations in 1906, which he says above are absolutely necessary to be 

 so continued? No! I had the following to say to your committee 

 July 30, 1912, to wit: 



Now, what has become of that "e^-pound" 3-year-old limit by which he has sworn 

 he "saved the 3-year-olds" in June and July, to' be again "saved" by him as such in 

 the autumn following by having this maximum limit of "6i pounds" put on the 

 taking of any "food skins"? Why, they are all killed. 



Mr. Madden. How many people are there on the islands? 



Mr. Elliott. About 300'; about 250 now. Why, those 3-year-olds so saved are 

 all killed later in the season, and so killed as being under the limit of "8^ pounds"! 

 He thus stupidly confesses to you, as above quoted, that he has nullified the very 

 rules of the department that he was and is sworn to obey and enforce. 



The Hitchcock rules ordered a "permanent mark" to be put upon these reserved 

 seals, "and under no circumstances are they to be taken," etc. Why was it not 

 done? The answer is easy. The lessees wanted those skins, and they manipulated 

 Lembkey as above — they got them. 



