13U FUK-SEAL HEKD OF ALASKA. 



(lial oxpofioiico above citivl with roii'Mnl lo llio soals and tlunr 

 hunt CIS ill tho sea. 



A review earel'ully made by (he comiuiltee of J)r. 'I'ownseiui's 

 record, as above >;iven by him, from the ollicial (iociimeuts and 

 records of the Treasury and St;i((> l)(»par(nients and United Stales 

 Fish Commission, in no resjHH't differs from the rehition of it as he 

 has given it to the committee. 



During the progress of Dr. Townsend's examination, on i)age 750, 

 hearing No. 12, he further delhies his experience as a ''seahng 

 expert" in the emph>y of the United States Fish (\>mmission, 

 to wit : 



Whon I was dotacluHl fn)iu tho work at tlio son! islaacls by ll\is coininissioii, in 189(), 

 I went around among tlie scalers in revonue cutters and t'ollcctcd data to make a 

 chart of seal migrations. 1 collected the l(\g books of 12o vessels engaged in pelagic 

 scaling at various times from l88o to 1897, with an aggregate cati'h of 804,713 seals. [ 

 phit.ted the known position of e\ (.-ry one of tht\s(> vessels on e^■ery day when a seal 

 was killed in any part of the Pacific Ocean, throughout each month's sealing, in a 

 different color, so that this chart, based as it is on tlie records of the sealing ll(>et from 

 1883 to 1897, shows where the seals actuall\ w t-nv 



As Dr. Townsend first entered the service of the (Government at 

 Baird, Cab, in 1SS;>, as an "assistant" of the United Stales (\>m- 

 mission of P^ish and Fisheries, this stalemenl (Undares that he had 

 had 14 years' experience witli the whoU' business of land kiUing and 

 sea killing of our fur-seal herd up to 1S97. So, when he went to The 

 Hague as tlie "seal expert" of the Ujiited States Bureau of Fisheries 

 ana the Ihiiled Stales Department of State, he went there with all 

 the autltority which sucii a cimimissioti conmianded, as based upon 

 such an exlenchMl exjierience (p. 40()-4()7, II. Doc. No. 1, r)7th Uong., 

 2dses>\). 



It will be observed that he says he had been busy making iin 

 exhaustive examination into the records of " 12o vessels" engaged in 

 pelagic sealing, at various times from 1S83 to 1897. 



As the Jaines Hamilton Lewis, during the seasons of 1890-91, was 

 one of the largest and most notorious of all the vessels in that fleet, 

 it is not to be supposed for a moment that Dr. Townsend, familiar 

 since 1885 with the whole story anuuallv of land and sea killing, 

 and especially charged with the duty of looking into all the details 

 of pelagic sealing from 1883 to 1897, coidd have overlooked or 

 shut his eyes to the prominent appearance of the Janicf^ llaniilton 

 Lewis in 1890 and her spectacular disappearance in 1891. IIow 

 could he, when the daily papers of the Pacific coast recited at great 

 lent^th the strange and excitmg details of this vessel's career in 1890 

 and finish in 1891? Columns of the newspapers of San Francisco 

 were filled with the story of the remarkable catch — the "high-line" 

 catch of the James Hamilton Lewis in 1890. See, for instance, the 

 San Francisco Chronicle's issue of September 14, 1890, and in 1891 

 columns of the same cit}' papers, all of them, again were given up, 

 October 4, 1891, to the story of how she had l)ccn captin-ed off 

 Copper Island, August 2, while her crew w^as ashore killing seals as 

 pirates. (See San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle, issues of Oct. 

 4, 1891.) 



Therefore, when Dr. Townisend made the following answer to the 

 committee, he told the truth (p. 754, hearing No. 12). 



