342 EEPOETS OF BERING SEA COMMISSION. 



Difficulty iu ob- For eighteen years after the Alaska purchase 



taiiiiug quota after 



1887. about one hundred thousand bachelor seals were 



secured annually without difficulty and without 

 impairing the productiveness of the breeding 

 rookeries, but the decrease brought about by 

 pelagic sealing made it extremely difficult to 

 obtain this number after 1887, and the standard 

 of size was lowered several times in order to 

 obtain the full quota. In 1890 the rookeries 

 and hauling grounds had fallen off to such an 

 alarming extent that the Treasury agent in 

 charge ordered the killing to stop on July 20, 

 at which date only twenty-one thousand seals 

 had been secured, and it may be added that this 

 number was taken only after the greatest exer- 

 tion on the part of the Company's agents. 



for^ca*f '^"° ^*^'^^* "^^^^ percentage of seals of killable size was so 

 small (fifteen to twenty percent) compared with 

 the percentage of yearlings, that it is not sur- 

 prising that the Treasury agents on the islands 

 were impressed with the scarcity of young 

 males, and being new men, inexperienced in 

 matters relating to seal life, were easily led to 

 mistake effect for cause and attributed the 

 decrease to the killing of too many young males 

 at the islands in previous years, instead of to 

 the destruction of the mothers and young by 



