REPORT OF AMERICAN COMMISSIONERS. 343 



pelagic sealers, an error tliey were quick to cor- Mistaking effect 



for cause. 



rect after another year's experience. 



The number of seals killed each day during ^.y^^faTiy'kiiiing?" 

 the killing season may be taken as a rough index 

 to the rapidity of the decline of the rookeries in 

 the past few years. Treasury Agent Charles J. 

 Goif, in charge of the seal islands in 1889-90, 

 states in his official report that the average daily 

 killing in 1890 was five hundred and twenty-two, 

 while in 1889 it was one thousand nine hundred 

 and seventy-four for the same period. 



In his report for 1889 Treasury Ag-ent Goff Report of Treas- 



^ ^ .; b ury Agent Goflf. 



states: "The alarming decrease in the dp.ily, 

 weekly, and monthly receipts of [skins by] the 

 Alaska Commercial Company, and as a dernier 

 resort by said Company to secure their one hun- 

 dred thousand skins, the killing of smaller seals 

 than was customary attest conclusively that . . . 

 there is a scarcity of seals, and that within the 

 last year or so they are from some cause decreas- 

 ing far beyond the increase." He states further : 

 "I regard it absolutely essential, for the future of 

 the rookeries, that prompt action be taken by the 

 Department for the suppression of illegal killing 

 of seals in Bering Sea, and that the utmost econ- 

 omy be observed in taking the seals allowed by 

 law." 



