REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 177 



GOO. Of these persons questioned by us, almost all who possessed a 

 familiarity with the Pribyloff Islands, including several who had pre- 

 viously been connected with the Alaska Commercial Company, were, 

 in 1891, found ready to admit that in 18S5 and 1880 the decrease in the 

 number of seals to be found on the islands, and particularly that of 

 killable seals, had become very striking. It was not, however, till 

 1888, that the existing state of affairs found some recognition in the 

 ofticial reports, when Dr. II. II. Mclntyre, then agent for the lessees on 

 the islands, admitted to the Congressional Committee on tlie Fur-seal 

 Fisheries of Alaska that the seals had decreased since 1882, and that 

 it had become difficult to obtain the full quota of marketable skins, 

 adding: "There are at ])resent, in my opinion, too few bull seals to 

 keep the rookeries up to their best condition."* 



GDI. In the years 188G, 1887, and 1888, the annual pelagic catch in Beh- 

 ring Sea probably did not exceed 17,000, being thus less than one-fifth of 

 the slaughter upon the islands; and .even if it be admitted, for the sake 

 of argument, that the killing of this' number at sea was more injurious 

 than that of a like number on shore, such alleged injurious effect could 

 scarcely have begun to make itself apparent on the rookeries for three 

 or four years after it took place. , 



G92. The conditions obtaining on the Pribyloff Islands in the last 

 three years have been so fully referred to in the present report, and in 

 various reports made by the officers in charge, that they scarcely 

 require detailed recapitulation in this particular connection. In 1889, 

 Mr. C. J. Goff reported an alarming shrinkage in the rookeries and 

 hauling grounds; and though the full quota was obtained, this was 

 only done by lengthening the killing season to the end of duly, and 

 greatly lowering the standard size of seals killed. In 1890, being the 

 first year of the North American Commercial Company's lease of the 

 islands, the number to be killed, in view doubtless of Mr. Gott's previous 

 report, which has not been published, was reduced to G0,000. But 

 killing was stopped by Mr. Goff, in charge of the islands, at the usual 

 date of the 20th July, at a time when, in consequence of the scarcity 

 of killable seals, only about one-third of that number had been secured. 

 In the same year Mr. Elliott re-examined the islands, and though his 

 report has likewise remained unpublished, a summary of his conclu- 

 sions has appeared, from which citations have already been made. He 

 states clearly that the injury to the rookeries, he now believes, " set in 

 from the beginning, twenty years ago, under the present system."t 



693. In 1891, the result of our own examinations, as well as the evi- 

 dence collected by us from all available sources, lead us to believe that 

 some at least of the breeding rookeries are in a better condition than in 

 the previous year, while in none of them is any further deterioration 

 noticeable — a circumstance Avhich fully justifies the action taken in 

 restricting the catch in 1890, and clearly indicates that the rookeries, 

 however reduced in numbers, possess an abundance of recuperative 

 energy. 



(C). — Standard Weights of SJdns taken. 



694. Closely connected with the foregoing notes, and of interest in 

 showing that the required number of young male seals has not been 



killed of late years upon these islands without great detriment to 

 120 their seal life, is the fact that the standard of weight of skins has 



* Honse of Representatives, 50tli Congress, 2nd Session, Report No. 3883, pp. 116 

 to 119. 



t Parliamentary Paper [C— 6368], London, 1891, p. 57. 



B S, PT VI 12 



