246 



FUE-SEAL HERD OP ALASKA. 



its existence, nor have I ever heard men- 

 tion of it, during my long residence on 

 the seal islands, where for many years 

 I was immediately connected with the 

 taking and curing of sealskins, dating 

 from the spring of 1875 to the expiration 

 of the Alaska Commercial C'o.'s lease, in 

 1890. 



Yours, respectfully, 



J. ('. Redpath. 



Mr. Lembkey. Mr. Redpath landed on 

 the islands first in 1875, one year after the 

 alleged promulgation of theElliott table 

 of weights and measurements. 



I regret that Mr. Redpath is in San 

 Francisco, and therefore is not able to 

 attend these hearings. Upon my return 

 from Alaska this fall, I obtained and for- 

 warded to Mr. Redpath a series of hearings 

 of this committee held last summer, with 

 the request that, after reading, he inform 

 me whether the list of weights and meas- 

 urements which Mr. Elliott claims was 

 ))romulgated in 1872-1874 on the islands 

 was, in truth, so published. His reply 

 bears out my belief that Mr. Elliott simply 

 has attempted to foist upon this commit- 

 tee a piece of manufactured evidence 

 bearing a date so far back in the history 

 of the islands that no one living would be 

 able to testify as to its truth or falsity. 

 (Hearing No. 9, pp. 404, 426, Apr. 13, 

 1912.) 



Lembkey (and Bureau of Fish- 

 eries) quotes Veniamiuov and mis- 

 quotes Elliott, to deceive. 



Mr. Lembkey. The cause of this great 

 decline of seal life during the Russian 

 regime was due to the reckless killing on 

 land not only of bachelor seals, such as are 

 killed to-day, but to the killing of female 

 seals wherever they could be found . And, 

 strange to say, the very evidence of this 

 wanton slaughter of females can be found 

 in Mr. Elliott's reports, although he is 

 very careful to keep such facts in abey- 

 ance when furnl.shing his deadly parallel 

 of the destruction caused by land killing 

 then and now. * * * Let us now 

 make a few quotations from Elliott to 

 show just what was the cause of the Rus- 

 sian scarcity of seals. * * * i^et us 

 quote Mr. Elliott: 



A translation of Veniaminov, whom I 

 have mentioned already, * * * occurs 

 in Mr. Elliott's monograph, his first report 

 on the seal islands. * * * 



In that translation we find the following 

 (juotation from the Russian writer: 



"From the time of the discovery of the 

 Pribilof Islands imtil 1805 the taking of 

 fur seals progressed. * * * Cowswere 

 taken in the drives and killed, and were 

 also driven from the rookeries, where 

 they were slaughtered * * *. " (Hear- 

 ing on H. R. 1671, Feb. 3, 1912, p. 114, 

 H. Com. Foreign Affairs.) 



ment has been made, as far as the records 

 of this office show. 



* * * * 



Geo. R. Tingle, 

 Treasury Agent in Charge. 



To THE Secretary of the Treasury, 

 Washington, D. C. 

 (H. Doc. 175, pp. 204, 205, 54th Cong., 



1 st sess . ) 



Elliott's answer proves his at- 

 tempt to deceive. 



Mr. Elliott. On page 143 of my mono- 

 grai^h, from which those extracts were 

 read (Ijy Lembkey), I made this signifi- 

 cant and fair statement of what I thought 

 of the same, to wit: 



' ' I translate this chapter of Veniaminov 's 

 without abridgment, although it is full 

 of errors, to show that while the Russians 

 gave this matter evidently much thought 

 at headquarters, yet they failed to send 

 some one onto the ground wlio, by first 

 making himself acquainted with the hab- 

 its of the seals, etc. 



■'Why did Mr. Lembkey fail to read the 

 above? The idea of making me responsi- 

 ble for a series of loose statements that I 

 literally credit to another man, and ex- 

 pressly define them as such, is, I submit to 

 the committee, a suppression of the truth 

 by Mr. Lembkey himself, and he, not I, 

 is guilty of that offense." (Hearing oa 

 H." R. 1671, Feb. 4, 1912, pp. 146, 147, 

 H. Com. Foreign Affairs.) 



