FUE-SEAL HERD OF ALASKA. 95 



nearly two years, has tlio following untruthful statement to finally 

 report under date of February 24, 1898, relative to the eonduct of 

 this work of kilhng seals by the Russian management of the herd, to 

 wit. 



On page 25, Fur Seal Investigation, Part I, 1898, under head of 

 the "Company's management," he says: 



At once, upon assuming control of the ielands, the Russian American company put 

 a stop to the rutli'.ess slaughter wliich threatened the fur-seal herds with destruction. 

 * * * They still continued to kill males and females alike. The injury to the 

 herd naturally continued. * * - 



That Dr. Jordan could make such a statement in distinct denial of 

 the only authority which he has used, and knows, is hard to believe, 

 when on page 222, following, of this same report above cited, part 

 third, appears the following translation of Bishop Veniaminov's ac- 

 count of this killing, which was originally published in St. Peters- 

 burg, 1839, by Von Baer, to wit: 



The takins^ of fur seals commenced in the latter days of September. * * '* The 

 siekatchie (hulls) and old females (i. e., two years and older) having been removed, 

 the others are divrded into small s(juads and are carefully driven to the place where 

 they are to be killed, sometimes more than ten versts distant. * * * 



When brought to the killing grounds they are rested for an hour or more, according 

 to circumstances, and then killed with a club. * * * Of those 1 year old, the males 

 are separated from the females and killed; the latter are driven carefully back to the 

 beach. 



Here is the explicit, clear cut statement made by Veniaminov, 

 who, writing in 1825, after a season spent on St. Pauls Island, denies 

 Dr. Jordan's assertion that the Russians killed male and female seals 

 aUke, and that that killing of females destroyed the herd. 



And still worse for Dr. Jordan, this translation quoted, was made 

 by Leonhard Stejneger, one of Dr. Jordan's own associates on the 

 Seal Islands, in 1896-97. 



There is but one conclusion for any fair mind in the premises. 

 That the Russians did not kill the female seals is j)()sitively stated by 

 the only authority who has been invoked l)v Dr. Jardan in the 

 premises, and who has been translated at length in Dr. Jordan's final 

 report, and correctly translated, as above cited. 



In this connection it is also passing strange that Dr. Jordan should 

 have gone out of his way to misquote another authority who has 

 explicitly denied the killing of female seals by the Russians. On page 

 25, Jordan's own statement is — 



In 1820 Yauovsky, an agent of the Imperial Government, after an inspection of the 

 fur-seal rookeries, called attention to the practice of killing the young animals and 

 leaving only the adults as bleeders. He writes: "If any of the young breeders are not 

 killed by autumn they are sure to be killed in the following spring." 



Unfortunately for Dr. Jordan, he has not quoted Yanovsk}' cor- 

 rectly. He has deliberately suppressed the fact as stated by this 

 Russian agent, and put another and entirely different statement in 

 his mouth; witness the following correct quotation of Yanovsky: 



In his report No. 41, of the 25th February, 1820, Mr. Yanovsky, in giving an account 

 of his inspection of the operations on the islands of St. Paul and St. George, observes 

 that "every year the young bachelor seals are killed, and that only the cows, seekatchie, 

 and half siekatch are left to propagate the species." It follows that only the old seals 

 are left while if any of the bachelors are left alive in the autumn they are sure to be 

 killed the next spring. The consequence is the number of seals obtained diminishes 

 every year, and it is certain that the species will in time become extinct. (Appendix 

 to case of United States Fur Seal Arbitration, Letter No. 6, p. 58, Mar. 5, 1821.) 



