120 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



occurriiip: -while tliey are yet too yomig' to withstaiHl it, but also from 

 the circumstance that they must rtehiy longer upon the breeding islands, 

 and must perhaps in the end leave these islands before their strength 

 is sufficient for the long- southern journey. 



435. The best account of the nature of such changes in earlier years 

 is that given by Bryant, whicli is elsewhere quoted in abstract. The 

 changes now apparent on the rookery grounds of the Pribyloft' Islands, 

 as compared with the previously described state of these grounds, and 

 as pointed out by those familiar with them, are chiefly of the following 

 kinds: 



436. A general decrease in the number of seals, which is most 

 marked in the disproportionally small number of holluschickie or males 

 of an age of less than about (3 years. Allusion has already been made 

 to this in connection with the marked increase in size of the "harems" 

 or cows held by a single adult bull, in late years. It is also strikingly 

 apparent when the iiresent conditions are contrasted with the descrip- 

 tions of former years, in which the half-grown but already virile bulls 

 are represented as haunting the vicinity of the breeding rookeries in 

 great numbers, and constantly struggling to meet the females upon 

 them, or in the margin of the adjacent sea. It is further indicated, 

 and veiy definitely, by the practical impossibility of procuring more 

 than 21,000 male skins in 1890, though every exertion was made to do 

 so, and the standards in weight of skins were greatly lowered, in order 

 to allow the inclusion of very young males. Tliis effort was continr^d 

 till it became patent to the Government officers in charge that ii was 

 useless and cruel to allow it to go further, because of tlie very iargo 

 and constantly increasijig numbers of non-killable seals which were 

 driven and redriven to the killing grounds, in order to obtain a few 

 passable skins. On this subject it may be well, however, to allow 

 these officers who witnessed and superintended those killings to speak 

 for themselves. 



437. Mr. C. J. Goff' says: "Heretofore, it was seldom that more 

 .78 than 15 per cent, of all the seals driven the latter jKirt of June 

 and the first few days in July were too small to be killed; but 

 this season the case was reversed [notwithstanding the lowering of 

 standards], and in many instances 80 to 85 per cent, were turned away 

 . . . The season closed on the 20th July, and the drives in July 

 show a decided increase in the percentages of small seals turned away, 

 and a decrease in the killables over the drives in June, demonstrating 

 conclusively that there were but few kiliable seals arriving, and that 

 the larger part of those returning were the pups of last year."* 



438. Colonel J. Murray gives an account of a meeting of the natives 

 held for discussion in the same year and long continued, after which — 

 " They unanimously declared that it was their firm belief and honest 

 opinion that the seals have diminished, and would continue to diminish 

 from year to year, because all the male seals had been slaughtered 

 without allowing any to come to maturity for use upon the breeding 

 grounds;" he adds: "lam now fully convinced by i)ersonal observa- 

 tion that it is only too true, and that the natives were correct in every 

 particular." t 



439. Gaptair, ,*..W. Lavender says: " The writer was surprised when 

 he first visited the rookeries to find no young bull seals upon them; this 

 looked strange to him, and he began to look up the cause, and it occuiu"ed 

 to him that the constant driving of young male seals, and the killing of 

 all the 2- 3- 4- and 5-year olds, that there were no young bulls left to go on 



* Senate, Ex. Doc. No. 49, 5l8t Congress, 2nd Session, p. 4. t Ibid., p. 8. 



