186 



FUE-SEAL HEED OF ALASKA. 



Evermann misquotes authen- 

 tic testimony to support idle and 

 baseless statements in re loss of 

 life to seal herd: 



Dr. Evermann. It is admitted by 

 practically everyone that not more than 

 1 in 5 of those fatally wounded is 

 secured by the pelagic sealers. Mr. 

 Elliott himself has stated that, in his 

 judgment, not more than 1 in 10 is 

 recovered. But let us use the more con- 

 servative estimate. The number secured 

 by the pelagic sealers in the eight years 

 from 1890 to 1897 was 635,739. Accept- 

 ing 1 to 5 as the proper ratio cf seals 

 secured to seals killed by the pelagic 

 sealers, the number mortally wounded 

 and not recovered was 2,542,956: and the 

 total number killed was 3,178.695 seals. 



And at least 80 per cent of these, or 

 2,542,956. were females. Or, if we accept 

 Mr. Elliott's ratio of number lost to num- 

 ber secured, the number killed was 

 6,357,390, of which 3,085,912 were 

 females. 



Mr. Ellkjtt. Mr. Elliott said nobody 

 could hx a ratio; it is ridiculous. 



Dr. ElvERMANN. * * * Mr. Elliott 

 says tliat not more than 1 in 10 is secured . 

 (P. 14], ('ommittee Merchant Marine and 

 Fisheries, hearing, June 8, 1888.) 



Mr. Elliott. I do not say anything of 

 the kind. It is an absurd, ridiculous 

 assertion repeatedly lepeated here. 



The Chairman. One minute. 



Mr. Elliott. I won't let a man sit 

 there as a scientist and utter falsehoods 

 here. 



Dr. Evermann. The remark 



Mr. Elliott (interposing). You can 

 not find it. I said this: The idea of esti- 

 mating loss at sea was a pipe dream: no 

 man knew what was lost. (Hearing No. 

 10, pp. 523-525, Apr. 20, 1912.) 



Evermann attempts to justify 

 fraud on the seal islands to the 

 committee : 



Dr. Evermann. An examination of 

 Mr. Elliott's report on his work on the 

 Pribilof Islands in 1890, published in 

 June, 1896, shows that he kept a diary or 

 journal in which he recorded his daily 

 observations and field notes. This record 

 appears to have been very carefully kept. 

 On pages 181 and 182 I find his entry for 

 July 7, 1890. You should examine this 

 entry. I have read it carefully, and I 

 fail to find in it any mention whatever of 

 the killing of female seals. If Mr. Elliott 

 discovered on that date that the agents 

 were permitting the lessees to kill female 

 seals, and if he had with the lessees' agent 

 and the Government agent the heated 



Evermann is compelled to read 

 the testimony which he had 

 misquoted: 



The Chairman. Where was the testi- 

 mony adduced? 



Dr. Evermann. June 8, 1888, Commit- 

 tee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries-, 

 page 140. (Reading): 



"Shooting fur seals in the open waters 

 of the sea or ocean with the peculiar shot 

 and liullet cartridges used involves an 

 immense waste of seal life. Every seal 

 that is merely wounded, and even if 

 mortally wounded , at the moment of shoot- 

 ing dives and swims away instantly, to 

 perish at some point far distant and to be 

 never again seen by its human enemies; 

 it is ultimately destroyed, but it is lost, 

 in so far as the hunters are concerned . If 

 the seal is shot dead instantly, killed in- 

 stantly, then it can l3e picked up in most 

 every case: but not 1 seal in 10 fired at 

 by the most skillful marine hunters is so 

 shot, and nearly every seal in this 10 will 

 have been wounded, many of them 

 fatally. The irregular tumbling of the 

 water around the seal and the irregular 

 heaving of the hunter's boat, both acting 

 at the same moment entirely independent 

 of each other, make the difficulty of tak- 

 ing an accurate aim exceedingly great and 

 the result of clean killing very slender." 

 (Pp. 140-141.) 



Mr. Elliott. Is it there where you say 

 I say 10, and only 1 recovered? 



Dr. Evermann. I read the testimony. 



Mr. Elliott. But you know I do not 

 say that. 



Dr. Evermann. The committee will 

 pass upon that. 



Mr. Elliott. Very well; I am satisfied. 

 (Hearing No. 10, pp. 527-529, Apr. 20, 

 1912.) 



But, the fraud is at once ex- 

 posed to the committee: 



Mr. Elliott. In the first place, all 

 those affidavits he has cited must have 

 been made after the 14th of August, 1890. 

 They were made by the employees of the 

 North American Commercial Co. under 

 pressure from George R. Tingle, who also 

 signed one of them; they were supple- 

 mented by a letter to Secretary Charles 

 Foster, from Capt. Michael Healey, United 

 States Revenue Marine Service, who 

 touched at the islands in October, 1890, 

 and who wrote to Foster about the ' 'seals 

 being as numerous then as they had ever 

 appeared to him in all previous years." 

 (Think of such a statement from such a 

 man, who knew so little!) 



