124 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



THE KILLING OF UNDERSIZED SEALS. 



For a time these more vigorous methods Lad the desired effect, but the scarcity 

 of bachelors as a result of the decreasing birth rate made it necessary finally to lower 

 the age for killable seals so as to include first the 2-year-olds and in the end many 

 of the larger yearlings, 1 in order to secure the requisite 100,000 skins. By these 

 methods it happened, in 1889, that practically the whole bachelor herd of four years 

 and under, down to the yearlings, was wiped out. The result was the abnormal drop 

 to 21,000 in the quota of 1890. 



SUCH KILLING DID NOT INJURE THE HERD. 



It is evident, however, that this sort of killing is not inimical to the breeding herd. 

 It simply destroys the superfluous bachelors through premature killing. It is an 

 anticipation in the quota of one year of the product of the next. That even the close 

 killing of 1889 did not endanger the herd is clearly shown in that it was possible to 

 secure, in 1890, 21,000 seals of killable age. This fact alone shows that in the nature 

 of things it is impossible to get all the males of a certain age in any given year. 

 That there were 21,000 seals which were of killable age in 1890 may be taken as 

 showing, indirectly at least, that, in like manner, other older bachelors escaped, which, 

 in the interval between 1889 and 1890, had passed to the "wigged" stage, where 

 they were no longer suitable for the quota. Of this class Mr. Elliott records in his 

 1890 report the turning back of 1,112 from a part of the killings of that year. 



PREMATURE KILLING WASTEFUL, BUT NOT INJURIOUS. 



It is not the intention here to justify the methods of killing employed in the 

 closing years of the lease of the Alaska Commercial Company. Such killing ought 

 never to have been allowed. It would not have occurred had not the termination of 

 the lease been approaching, as it would have been wholly against the interest of the 

 lessees. But it is not conceivable that such killing could ever aft'ect the life of the 

 herd, as it would necessarily bring to ruin the business of taking seal skins on land 

 long before it could produce any effect on the breeding herd. 



KILLING OF PUPS WASTEFUL. 



Nor can the wasteful practice of killing pups for food and killing seals when 

 stagy, which unnecessarily augmented the draft on the male life of the herd, be 

 passed over without condemnation. The magnitude of this waste may be inferred 

 from the following synopsis taken from the records : 2 



Seals killed whose skins were wasted, 1871-1S90. 



Pups (for food) 95, 628 



Food skins (rejected) 27, 790 



Bachelor skins (rejected) 30, 798 



Total 154,216 



1 Letter of Dr. Mclutyre, Senate Doc. 137, Pt. I, p. 345. 

 See Appendix I. 



