62 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



it stands in the state of nature heretofore described. It can not fail to be evident, 

 from my detailed narration of the habits and life of the fur seal on these islands 

 during so large a part of every year, that could man have the same supervision and 

 control over this animal during the whole season which he has at his command 

 while they visit the land he might cause them to multiply and increase, as he would 

 so many cattle, to an indefinite number, only limited by time and the means of feed- 

 ing them. But the case in question, unfortunately, is one where the fur seal is 

 taken, by demands for food, at least six months out of every year, far beyond the 

 reach or even cognizance of any man, where it is all this time exposed to many 

 known powerful and destructive natural enemies, and probably many others, equally 

 so, unknown, which prey upon it, and, in accordance with that well-recognized law 

 of nature, keeps this seal life at a certain number at a rigure which has been 

 reached for ages past, and continue to be in the future, as far as they now are their 

 present maximum limit of increase, namely, between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000 seals, in 

 round numbers. This law holds good everywhere throughout the animal kingdom, 

 regulating and preserving the equilibrium of life in the state of nature. Did it not 

 hold good these seal islands and all Bering Sea would have been literally covered, 

 and have swarmed like the medusa? of the waters, long before the Russians discov- 

 ered them. But, according to the silent testimony of the rookeries, which have been 

 abandoned by the seals, and the noisy, emphatic assurance of those now occupied, 

 there were no more seals when first seen here by human eyes in 1786 and 1787 than 

 there are now in 1881, as far as all evidence goes. (Elliott's Seal Islands of Alaska, 

 p. 66.) 



What a pity it is that Mr. Elliott should have forgotten in 1890 the 

 fact that the long drives of from 6 to 12 miles were continued by the 

 Russians as long as they were in possession of the islands, and that 

 from 1808 to 1881 the Americans killed, annually, 100,000 young male 

 seals without causing diminution or decrease, and that during the entire 

 forty-seven years, from 18/54 to 1881, the herd increased to marvelous 

 proportions in spite of the long drives and the killing of so many young 

 males, until, as he himself says, "there were no more seals when first 

 seen here by human eyes in 1786 and 1787 than there are now in 1881, 

 as far as all evidence goes." 



DECREASE OF SEALS LACK OF MALE LIFE NOT THE CAUSE. 



In this connection it may be well to notice some of the testimony bear- 

 ing on this very question of an excess or a dearth of bulls on the breed- 

 ing grounds, collected by the United States when preparing their case 

 for submission to the Tribunal of Arbitration, where the British coun- 

 sel laid such stress upon Mr. Elliott's report of 1890, with his theory of 

 overdriving, impotency, dearth of bulls, innumerable barren females, 

 and a consequent decrease of the seal herd as a whole. 



In their report the British Bering Sea Commissioners say: 



Upon the Pribilof Islands in 1891 we did not ourselves note any great abundance 

 of barren females, but the facts in this matter would be scarcely apparent to those 

 not intimately connected with the rookeries for more than a single year. In his 

 official report on the condition of the islands in 1890, Mr. Elliott states that therefore 

 then 250,000 females "not bearing or not served last year and this," but he does not 

 explain in what way this numerical estimate was arrived at. (Report of ttritish 

 Commissioners, sec. 433, p. 77.) 



Not only did they not note " any great abundance of barren females," 

 but it is an open question whether they noted any, for the fact is there 

 were not any such animals there to be seen, but they gladly quote Mr. 

 Elliott's story of 1890 about the 250,000 barren females which he observed 

 on the islands. 



There was not a single day of the breeding season of 1891 when some 

 of the four Treasury agents were not out on the rookeries making care- 

 ful examination of the condition of seal life thereon, and, although I 

 was one of the four, I have yet to hear the first word from any of them, 

 or from any one else who has ever been on a rookery (excepting Mr. 

 Elliott), about barren females. 



