172 DECREASE OF THE ALASKAN SEAL HERD. 



Along the const, there was no change in tlie manner of handling 

 and taking the seals in the last decade from that 

 employed in former years, during wliicli the seal 

 herd materially increased,-^ 



CAUSE. 



Lack of male Nor was this marked decrease charsreable to 



lilc not the cause. 



the fact that there were not sufficient males to 

 serve the females resorting to the islands.^ Mr. 

 J. C. Redpath, already quoted as one thoroughly 

 familiar with seal life on the islands, says: "A 

 dearth of bulls on the breeding rookeries was a 

 pet theory of one or two transient visitors, but it 

 only needed a thorough investigation of the rook- 

 eries to convince the most skeptical that there 

 were plenty of bulls and to spare, and that hardly 

 a cow could be found on the rookeries without 

 a pup at her side."^ Karp Buterin, Head Chief 

 of the natives of St. Paul Island, says: "Plenty 

 of bulls all the time on the rookeries, and plenty 

 bulls have no cows. I never seen a three-year- 

 old cow without a pup in July; only two-year- 

 olds have no pups."^ Agent Goff particularly 

 testifies that although the lessees had much diffi- 



K4nte,l^. 164. 



2,T. Stanley Browu, Vol. II, p. 18; Anton Melovedoff, Vol. II, p. 

 142 ; Daniel Webster, Vol. II, p. 181. 

 3 Vol. II, p. 151. 

 < Vol. II, p. 104. 



