FUR SEALS AND OTHER LIFE, PRIBILOF ISLANDS, I914. 23 



SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS. 



On the acquisition of Alaska by the United States it became evident that the fur 

 seals of the Pribilofs represented a source of revenue concerning which very little was 

 known. In the spring of 1872 Henry W. Elliott was sent to the islands by the Secre- 

 taries of the Smithsonian Institution and the Treasury. He remained until the spring 

 of 1873 and later published a report which has appeared in several forms and which 

 still remains the principal source of information regarding the early history of the 

 islands and their activities. Mr. Elliott was on the islands also in the summers of 

 1874 and 1876. In the summer of 1890, as a special agent of the Treasury Department, 

 he again visited the Pribilofs. With him at this time was associated William Palmer, 

 a naturalist in the employment of the United States National Museum. 



In the summer of 1891 a joint commission representing Great Britain and the 

 United States visited the Pribilof Islands. The members for the United States were 

 C. Hart Merriam and Thomas C. Mendenhall, and for Great Britain George S. Baden- 

 Powell and George M. Dawson. A brief joint report was submitted by the commission 

 in March, 1892, and detailed reports to their respective countries by the representatives 

 of the United States and Great Britain were published later. 



The appointment of a second joint commission representing Great Britain and the 

 United States to reconsider the result of the work of the Paris tribunal has already been 

 referred to. This commission consisted of David Starr Jordan, Jefferson F. Moser, 

 Leonhard Stejneger, Frederic A. Lucas, Charles H. Townsend, George A. Clark, and 

 Joseph Murray, representing the United States. Those representing Great Britain were 

 D'Arcy W. Thompson, Gerald E. H. Barrett-Hamilton, James M. Macoun, and Andrew 

 Halkett. Investigations were made by this commission in the summer and autumn of 

 1896 and again during the same season in 1897. Several assistants accompanied the 

 American commission to do special work under its direction. 



In the spring and summer of 1892 Barton W. Evermann, as a special commis- 

 sioner under the State Department, made extensive studies regarding pelagic sealing 

 in the North Pacific. In the course of his investigations he visited the Pribilof Islands. 



Frederick W. True, of the United States National Museum, visited the Pribilofs 

 for the purpose of studying the fur seals in the summer of 1895. 



Charles H. Townsend made important studies of the fur seals on the Pribilof Islands 

 during some nine seasons, in 1885, 1892 to 1896, inclusive, and in 1898 and 1900. 



In the summer of 1906 Edwin W. Sims, of the Department of Commerce and Labor, 

 investigated the fur seals of the Pribilofs. 



As a special investigator to perform the naturalist's duties, Harold Heath spent 

 the season of 1910 on the islands and made a census of the herd and certain special 

 studies. 



In the summer of 1913 H. W. Elliott and A. F. Gallagher went to the Pribilof Islands 

 as special agents of the House Committee on Expenditures in the Department of 

 Commerce. 



George A. Clark, secretary to the American commission of 1896 and 1897, visited 

 the Pribilofs in 1909, 1912, and 1913 as a special agent of the Bureau of Fisheries and 

 made detailed studies of the seal herd. 



