176 DECREASE OF THE ALASKAN SEAL HERD. 



Raids on rook- described by members of the crew of sucli 



ei'ies not the cause. 



vessels/ 

 Management of If, then, this marked decrease in the Alaskan 



rookeries not the 



cause. seal herd has not been caused by the way the 



seals are handled or killed upon the islands, nor 

 by a lack of male life resulting- from excessive 

 destruction of bachelor seals by the lessees of 

 the seal rookeries with the consent of the Gov- 

 ernment of the United States, nor by the depre- 

 dations of marauding parties upon the islands, 

 another cause of destruction must be sought. 

 Excessive kill- It is admitted by all parties to this controversy 



iiig the aduiittcd 



cause. that a decrease has taken place in the Alaskan 



seal herd which has been "the result of excessive 

 killing by man."^ The acts of man in destroy- 

 ing seal life can be performed either upon the 

 islands which the seals have chosen for their 

 home or in the waters of the Pacific Ocean or 

 Bering Sea, while the herd is performing its 

 annual migration or during its stay at the islands. 

 That such destruction of the species on the 

 Pciasic sealing islands lias uot causcd the great decrease in the 



the sole cause. r i i i t i 



number oi seals has already been shown; there 

 remains, therefore, but one other possible cause, 

 namely, the killing of seals during their migra- 



iJoseph Gryuies, Vol. II, p. 434 ; Peter Duffy, Vol. II, p. 421. 

 2 Joint Report of the American and British Commissioners, jjost, 

 p. 309. 



