204 



FUR-SEAL HEED OF ALASKA. 



lection of ever going there to see those 

 men. 



Mr. Elliott. You were engaged as an 

 employee of the Bureau of Fisheries, 

 looking into this matter of pelagic sealing 

 for a number of years, were you not? 

 And, in your reports, you had occasion 

 to see the "owners" and look into "the 

 books of the owners'" of pelagic-sealing 

 vessels, did you not? 



Dr. TowNSEND. I got most of my log 

 books directly from captains of vessels. 



Mr. Elliott. Do you not know from 

 your investigation that Liebes was the 

 largest dealer in pelagic sealskins on the 

 Pacific coast? 



Dr. TowNSEND. The great bulk of my 

 data was obtained, not in San Francisco, 

 but in Victoria. 



(Hearins: No. 12, pp. 773, 774. Mav 25. 

 1912.) 



Townsend repeats the falsehood 

 of Jordan in re a fictitious pelagic- 

 sealer's lobby — the former takes 

 his cue from the latter's telegram 

 to Congress. 



[Science, Mar. 1, 1912.] 



To THE Editor of Science: 



If Mr. ^McLean will bring his cdmmittce 

 to my office where there is a fairly com- 

 j)lete set of rookery photograph.'* and 

 charts, he will get a clearer understand- 

 ing of the Pribilof breeding grounds tlian 

 he has at present. The fact is that the 

 innocent Camp Fire Club is being used 

 by the unscrupulous lobby which has 

 always been kept at Avork by the pelagic 

 sealers. One excuse suits it as well as 

 another, this time it is the killing of sur- 

 plus males. It is a pity that year after 

 year it should succeed in getting the 

 support of men of good standing who hap- 

 pen to be ignorant of the real facts in- 

 volved. 



C. H. TqWNSEND, 



Member Advisory Board Fur Seal Service. 



(Hearino- No. 10, pp. 597-598, Apr. 20, 

 1912.) 



Dr. Townsend. I do not remember any 

 such person. 



The Chairman. Do you know that he is 

 connected with the Sealers' Association, or 

 the Victoria Sealers' Association. 



Dr. Townsend. No, sir; I have no in- 

 formation on the subject. 



The Chairman. Do you know of any 

 l)usiness relation between Liel)es & Co. 

 and the Victoria Sealers' Association? 



Dr. Townsend. No, sir. 



The Chairman. You never did dis- 

 cover that as long as you were connected 

 with the Bureau of Fisheries? 



Dr. Townsend. I was probably not in- 

 terested in it at all. As furriers, they 

 were probably were interested in every 

 thing of that kind. 



The Chairman. Lampson & Co. have 

 an agent with the Victoria Sealers' Asso- 

 ciation, have they not? 



Dr. Townsend. I can not say; I do 

 not know. 



The Chairman. Do you know the num- 

 ber of skins that were consigned by the 

 Victoria Sealers' Association in 1895 and 

 1896? 



Dr. Townsend. No. sir; but that is a 

 matter of record, no doubt. 



(Hearing No. 1:3, i^p. 807, 808, June 8, 

 1912.) 



Townsend attempts a denial of 

 the res]wnsibilitY of the deroga- 

 tory Osborn-Grant letter, while 

 Elliott ))roves that in 1909 he re- 

 fused to admit any ''rights" for 

 pelagic sealers. 



Mr. Elliott. Yes. Dr. Townsend, I 

 have in my hand a letter signed by Henry 

 Fairfield Osborn and ]\Iadison Grant, 

 president and chairman of the New York 

 Zoological Society, general office, No. 11 

 Wall Street, dated February 8, 1912, ad- 

 dressed to the Hon. W. S. Goodwin, Com- 

 mittee on Foreign Affairs, Washington, 

 D. C. In this letter appears the follow- 

 ing paragraph: 



"Mr. Henry W. Elliott, who holds 

 views opposite to the foregoing, is and 

 has been for many years a man entirely 

 discredited in the scientific world and 

 is not taken seriously by anyone who has 

 followed his record in connection with 

 this subject during the past 18 years. 

 We believe that those who have sup- 

 ported him in this unnecessary and sense- 

 less agitation, which has been solely in- 

 stigated by him, have been grosslv mis- 

 led." 



I ask if you inspired that letter? 



