SKAL LIF1-: ON THE PHIHlLoF ISLANDS. (i 



Of all the testimony collected (luring the preparation of the United 

 States case tor the Tribunal of Arbitration, I know of nothing clearer 

 or more explicit than this of Mr. Elliott, and to me it seems pitiful, 

 indeed, that one who has such a grasp of the subject, and the ability to 

 express it so well, should have been allured for a moment from the plain 

 path of fact to follow the ignis fatuns of theory through so many lanes 

 and byways to the sorrow of so many of his friends and admirers. 



Reading his different papers, in the light of subsequent events, their 

 perusal makes one feel sorry, indeed, that he did not adopt Webster's 

 views and follow his advice when the old veteran sealer conversed with 

 him on St. George Island that -Oth day of July, 1890, of which Mr. 

 Elliott writes: 



Daniel Webster is the veteran white sealer on these islands. lie came to St. I'aul 

 Island in 1SC58, and, save the season oi' 187t> (then on a trip to the Kussian seal islands), 

 he has been sealing here ever since, being' in charge of the work at Northeast Point 

 annually until this summer oi' 1S90, when he has conducted the killing on St. George. 



lie spoke very freely to me this afternoon while calling on me, and said there is no 

 use trying to build these rookeries up again so as to seal here, as has been done since 

 1868, unless these animals are protected in the North Pacific Ocean as well as in 

 Bering Sea ; on this point the old man was very emphatic. (Elliott's report for 

 1890, p. 250.) 



What wonder is it that Webster should have been emphatic in his 

 remarks on pelagic sealing! For more than fifty years he has been in 

 Bering Sea, thirty years of which have been spent among the fur seals 

 of which he has had the practical management, and handled and killed 

 more of them than any other living man. 



A plain, blunt, rough, practical seaman, honest and patriotic to the 

 core, he could not be wheedled into new-fangled notions or airy theories 

 which are repugnant to good, common sense, and so he makes oath that: 



My observation has been that there was an expansion of the rookeries from 1870 

 to 1879, which fact 1 attribute to the careful management of the islands by the 

 United States Government. * * * There was never, while I have been upon the 

 islands, any scarcity of vigorous bulls, there always being a bufficient number to 

 fertilize all the cows coming to the islands. 



The season of 1891 showed that male seals had certainly been in sufficient number 

 the year before, because the pups on the rookeries were as many as should be for the 

 number of cows landing, the ratio being the same as in former years. 



Then, too, there was a surplus of vigorous bulls in 1891 who could obtain no cows. 

 At Zapaduie, on St. George, the drive to the killing grounds is less than a 

 mile. The seals are now being killed there instead of being driven across the island, 

 as they were prior to 1878, when it took three days to make the journey. 



At Northeast Point rookery, on St. Paul Island, the longest drive is 2 miles. la 

 former times the Russians used to drive from this rookery to St. Paul village, a dis- 

 tance of 12^ miles. (See Webster's affidavit, Appendix.) 



Yes, let it not be forgotten for a moment that from the first taking of 

 fur seals for their skins on the Pribilof Islands to 1808 they were driven 

 a distance of V2$ miles or from end to end of St. Paul Island and 

 that no distinction of sex was made, male and female being driven and 

 slaughtered indiscriminately, until the almost total extinction of the 

 species in 1834 compelled the Russian- American Company to investigate 

 the cause of the decrease, which resulted in prohibiting the killing of 

 females forever after w a ds. 



It seems that in spite of their ignorant and barbarous methods and 

 their possible lack of scientific acumen, these Russians were practical 

 fellows after all, for the sequel certainly shows that the plan adopted 

 by them of saving and protecting the female was the true one. Mr. 

 Elliott's own estimates show that from 1835 to 1881 the herds had 

 steadily increased up to 5,000,000 seals, or up to a point beyond which 

 it was impossible to go. Speaking of the increase of seal life, he tells us : 



I am free to say that it is not within the power of human management to promote 

 this end to the slightest appreciable degree over its present extent and condition as 



