248 



FUR-SEAL HEED OF ALASKA. 



Dr. Jordan clcnios the ap])oar- 

 aucc on the hauling- o-rounds of 

 the yearlings, and in the killing 

 drives before ''the middle of 

 July." 



* * * in facf the records of the 

 drives show that it is only after the mid- 

 dle of July that the yearlinp;s bef):in to 

 arrive in numbers, and by the time the 

 kil]in2: season is over. * -^ * (Fur- 

 Scal tuvestii^ations, pt. 1, 1898, p. 99.) 



Jordan asserts and denies the 

 fact that the yearling seals haul 

 out, as a class, on the islands be- 

 fore the middle of July annually, 

 and therefore are not killed. 



From the killing during the present 

 tseason (1896) 15.00(1 atiimals too small to 

 kill were turned back. As in the case of 

 the young bulls, some of these, perhaps 

 many, were driven and redriven, several 

 drives being made from each hauling 

 ground during the season. The actual 

 number represented l)y this total of re- 

 j(>cted animals can not be exactly deter- 

 mined. From this it would seem neces- 

 sary to suppose that by no means all the 

 younger seals appear on the hauling 

 grounds during the killing season. In 

 fact, the records of the drives show that it 

 is only after the middle of July that the 

 yearlings begiii to arrive in numbers, and 

 by the time the killing season is over the 

 great majority of the killable seals are 

 secured, leaving the population of the 

 hauling grounds almost exclusively year- 



Of those 1 year old, the males are 

 separated from the females and killed 

 while the latter are driven carefully back 

 to the beach. (Fur-Seal Investigations, 

 pt. 3, 1898. p. 222; transxation of Bishop 

 Veniamiuov by Leonhard Stejneger. i 



But Chief Special Agent Goff 

 asserts in an official entry that 

 yearlings are in the drives as 

 early as June 18. 



[P. 229: Official Journal, Governmeut Agent, St. 

 Paul Island, 1S90.] 



Wednesday, June 18, 1890.— Made a 

 drive from Tolstoi and Middle Hill; killed 

 274. Turned away 19 half grown bulls: 

 as many yearlings as choice seals, killed 

 (i. e., 274). and half as many 2-year- 

 olds as yearlings were allowed to return to 

 the sea. This is a fair average of the 

 work so far this season. (Chas. J. Goff, 

 V. 8. Chief Sp'l Agent in charge Seal 

 Islands.) 



Mondai/. June 23, 1S90.~(\). 2.31.) 

 The N. A. C. Co. made a drive from Tol- 

 stoi and Middle Hill, killing 521 seals. 

 Seventy-five percent of the seals driven to 

 th? village were turned back into the sea, 

 10 per cent of these were 2-year-olds, 

 balance y<'arlings. (('. J. Goff.) 



Tuesday, June 24, 189G.—(p. 231.) 

 N. A. ('. Co., made a drive from Ileef and 

 Tolstoi, and killed 126 seals; about 65 

 per cent of this drive was turned back 

 into the sea. about all of these were 

 vearlintrs. 



((\ J. Goff.) 



But sworn proof is below that 

 the yearlings do haul out as a 

 class, and in the earliest June 

 drives, and are never absent from 

 them thereafter during the sea- 

 son. 



Mr. Elliott. Now as to yearlings on the 

 islands. Here is an official report de- 

 tailed day after day during the killing 

 season of 1890, put on the hies of the 

 Treasury Department, and printed, and 

 until the 1st of December, 1907, not a line 

 had been issued from the Government 

 officialism in charge of this business — not 

 a line that says a single record of this 

 work as to the killing on those islands in 

 1890 is improperly stated here. The only 

 objection they make to it was that I ofh- 

 cially assumed that driving these young 

 and old seals hurt them. They claimed 

 it did not hurt them, but that it did them 

 good. We will leave that open. But the 

 killing has hurt them; they admit that 

 now officiallv. Let me read, on page 170: 



"Monday," June 23, 1890. * * * 

 Eleven pods of 561 animals driven up; 



