REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 201 



Tlio killiiiJi- as per official Eetiirii made up iu 1871, liowever, sliows a 

 total of 23,773, from which 9,988 skins iu all were saved, the remainder 

 beinQ pups and other seals killed for food. (House of Eepreseutatives, 

 Ex. &0C. No. 83, 44th Congress, 1st Session.) 



811. 1871. It was discovered that the skins of 3-, 4-, aud 5-year-old 

 seals were most iii demand, aud the killiug was chauged to suit this 

 demand; but no material change was observed in the habits of the 

 seals. (Monograph of North American Pinnipeds, p. 392.) Bryant else- 

 wliere says that a carelul comparison of this year with 1869 and 1870 

 shows a decrease of 10 per cent, in females. (Ex. Doc. No. 83, 44th 

 Congress, 1st Session, p. 65.) , ^ . 



812. 1872. The killing was directed as far as possible to seals from 4 

 to C years old. and some of 7 vears old were killed. This, taken in con- 

 junction with the killing of 1871, diminished the number of "reserves" 

 or virile males not actually on the breeding grounds, but doing duty 

 along the shores. The number of females was increasing 5 per cent, 

 annually. (Bryant in Monograph of North American Pinnipeds.) 



Lieutenant Maynard, accepting the method of estimating the seals 

 advocated by Elliott, makes the whole number in this year nearly 

 6,000,000. (House of Representatives, Ex. Doc. No, 43, 44th Congress, 

 1st Session, p. 5.) Elliott estimated that the seals on St. George Island 

 were only one-eighteenth of the whole number, or, as compared with 

 those on St. Paul, as 1 to 17. (Census Report, p. 157.) 



[Mr. Dirks stated to us that in this year it seemed as if the killing 

 of 100,000 seals annually could not injuriously aftect the rookeries,] 



In this year Captain Lewis, of the Hudson's Bay Company, reported 

 very great and entirely unprecedented number of seals off Vancouver 

 Island and the entrance to Fuca Strait, chiefly grey pups and year- 

 lings, (Elliott, Census Eei)ort, p. 166.) This appears to have been in 

 connection with the change in habits observed on the rookeries in the 



following summer. i «. ^ ^ x. 



813. 1873, It was now found that the 3-year-old seals aflorded the 

 best marketable skins, and the killing was directed to those. The 

 "reserves" became reduced to half their former number, aud each beach- 

 master had on the average fifteen females. When the rookeries broke 

 up at the close of the breeding season, the females lingered instead 

 of leaving them as before. Iu September and October a few young 

 were born, showing that some females had not been served at the proper 

 time in 1872. The females were still increasing 5 per cent, anuually in 

 number. (Bryant in Monograph of North American Pinnipeds.) 



814. 1874. The condition of seal life remained about the same as in 

 1873. The " reserves" were in about the same numbers, but contained 

 more young as compared with fully mature males. The females appeared 

 iu similar number, and, on the whole, there was an evident improve- 

 ment in the condition of the rookeries. (Bryant in Monograph of North 

 American Pinnipeds.) 



An Act of Congress, approved March 1874, authorized the Secretary 

 of the Treasury to rearrange the proportion of catch to be taken from 

 St. Paul and St. George respectively, and to designate the months of 

 killing. Under this provision, the time of killing was extended to 

 include the first half of the month of August, (Bancroft's Works, vol. 

 xxxiii, p. 638.) 



815. In 1874, Lieutenant W. Maynard, U. S. N., investigated the con- 

 ditions of seal lile on the Pribyloff Islands as Si)ecial Government 

 A gent. He recommended that enlarged copies of maps of the breeding 

 grounds should be furnished to the agents in charge of the islands, 



