PUR-SEAL HEED OF ALASKA. 



159 



Mr. McGuiRK. You are not prepannl to 

 testify as to tlie relative destrurtivenesri 

 of these three agents? 



Dr. Merriam. No; I do not know; it 

 Avoiild be only a guess. 



Mr. McGuiRE. What would be your 

 guess, if you have any guess. 



Dr. Merriam. My guess would bo that 

 the number killed by killer whales and by 

 trampling on the rookeries, assuming tlu^ 

 rookeries are pretty full — I do not mean al 

 the present time, when the rookeries are 

 so empty^ — would be about even. 



Mr. McGu'iRE. I see. 



Dr. Merriam. The killing by trampling 

 and the killing by the killer whales 

 would be about even, and the deaths 

 produced by internal parasites would be 

 very nuich fewer than half of those from 

 either of the other causes. 



Mr. McGuire. Well, what steps would 

 you take to reduce the killing by tram- 

 pling? Suppose you were right in charge 

 of that herd, what would you do? 



Dr. Merriam. The only recommenda- 

 tion that has occurred to me is to lessen 

 the number of superfluous males; in other 

 words, to decrease the fighting. 



Mr. McGuiRE. You w^ould do that by 

 diminishing 



Dr. Merriam. By thinning out the 

 superfluous males by killing many of 

 them before they are old enough to go on 

 the rookeries, so that the fighting would 

 not be so severe, thu^ lessening the num- 

 ber of young killed by trampling. The 

 battles are very fierce, as everyone knows 

 who witnesses them. 



Mr. McGuire. In proportion, then 

 down to a certain number of males, as the 

 number of males are diminished, the 

 losses from trampling are less? 



Dr. Merriam. That seems rational. 



Mr.McGuiRE. Yes; that seems rational. 

 What number of females would you leave 

 for each male? WTiat do you think would 

 be a fair estimate? (Hearing No. 11, pp. 

 694, 696; May 4, 1912.) 



Merriam tells the committee 

 how he would manage so as to 

 kill 75 per cent of the seals only. 



Mr. Elliott. I do not wish to have you 

 do it, either. Doctor. Doctor, you said 

 you could "kill down to 75 per cent." 

 How do you know when you are "killing 

 down to 75 per cent" — will you tell the 

 committee how you arrive at that con- 

 clusion? 



Dr. ]\Ierriam. I suppose if there are a 

 hundred nonbreeding male seals on the 

 hauling grounds, and 75 per cent of those 

 are driven off, leaving 25, and the 75 are 

 killed, w^e would have reason to suspe^ct 

 that we had killed 75 per cent of the non- 



Dr. Merria.m. 1 am not clear enough 

 about thai to be willing to make a positive 

 statement. 



Mr. Elliott, Did you see any "tram- 

 pling of pui)s? " 



Dr. Merria.m. I saw trampling of pups, 

 and 1 saw a male seal on a belated harem 

 seize a female seal from another harem, 

 and the bull of the harem to whom the fe- 

 male belonged attacked the first one very 

 savagely; that 1 sav/, but it was like the 

 case of the young seal, it was a belated 

 case. Those incidents were mostly over 

 before the time of my visit. 



Mr. Elliott. That is exactly as I 

 understand it. You got there too late to 

 see the breeding. Dr. Merriam, did you 

 see any "cows killed and torn to pieces" 

 by these bulls? 



Dr. Merriam. I saw a cow torn, as I 

 have just stated, but not killed. Whether 

 she died afterwards or not I do not know. 



Mr. Elliott. 1 published that in full 

 detail in 1874. Dia 1 not y)ublish the fact 

 at the same time that all this "fighting" 

 takes place from six to two weeks before 

 the general, full arrival of the cows, ex- 

 cept in sporadic cases? (See p. 42, Spl. 

 Bulletin 176, U.S. Com. Fish and Fish- 

 eries, 1882.) 



The Chairman. The witness may not 

 know what you wrote. 



Mr. Elliott. He is a student of natural 

 history and a specialist on seals, and he 

 certainly read that monogi-ayjh of mine 

 over and over again . You will admit that, 

 will you not. Doctor? 



Dr. Merriam. I certainly have not 

 read it for more than 20 years. 



Mr. Elliot'!'. You read it when you 

 went up there, all right. 



Dr. Merriam. I probably read it imme- 

 diately on my return. 



Mr. Elliott. Now, Dr. Lucas, did you 

 see up there a pup trampled to death by 

 a bull? 



Dr. Lucas. No. 



Elliott tells the committee 

 that no man can kill down to 75 

 j)er cent or 95 per cent, and know 

 when he has done so. 



The Chairman. You make your state- 

 ment to the committee, and we can get 

 along better in that way. 



Mr. Elliott. They can not and do not 

 know how to save that "5 per cent"; I 

 will show you exactly how they do not 

 save that "5 per cent" and can not pos- 

 sibly save it; no living man can. 



The Chairman. You give us your state- 

 ment. 



'Mr. Elliott. 1 will. \Mien they go 

 out to drive up seals they drive up what 

 they find on a given hauling ground. Say 



