FUR-SEAL HERD OF ALASKA. 



10' 



Now, what has become of that "' 6^-pound'' .3-year-old livdt by which he has sivorn he 

 "saved the S-year-oIds" in June and July, to be again ".saved" by him as such in the 

 autumn foUoAving by having this maximum limit of ''6J pounds" put on the taking 

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



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



Mr. Elliott. About 300; al)out 250 now. Why, tho.se 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.^ 



The natives made no mistake — not at all — "they took those 4- 

 year-olds for 3-year-olds" just because the lessees' agents ordered 

 them to do so. E. W. Clark is not telling all of the truth^ — only part 

 of it, for good reasons of his own, perhaps! 



St. George Island, August 14, 1907. 



Dear Mr. Lembkey. It has occuned to me that you may wish a formal statement 

 regarding the marking of the young male seals at this island for a breeding reserve. 

 The following is a statement in detail: 



While the marking of 4-year-old seals is not enjoined. I deemed it wise to mark these 

 which the natives caught, believing that if they would make the error of taking these 

 seals for three years old when we were branding they were likely to make a similar 

 error when we came to killing, and it was a good plan to render such seals immune 

 for the season. 



Our selection of seals for breeding was of the first class, and the marks remain as 

 conspicuous now as when first applied. 



Very respectfully, Ezra W. Clark, 



Assistant Agent in Charge. 



1 The maimer in which they were "reserved" and then taken is set forth as follows: 



3. The reserve of bachelors. — Beginning with the season of 1904, there has Iteen set aside each spring a 

 special breeding reserve 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 distinguLshing them to the club- 

 bers. They are carefully exempted on the killing field and released. 



This method of creating a breeding reserve seems open to considerable criticism, and has apparently been 

 only moderately successful. The mark put upon the animal is a temporary one. The fur is replaced 

 during the fall and winter, and the followuig spring the marked seals can not be recognized. The animals 

 being 2 and 3 years of age are still killal>le 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, l>ut, except in so far as animals 

 of the previous season's marking 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. ( Report of G. A. Clark, p. 847, 

 Appendix A, H. Com. Exp. Dept. C. and L.) 



