SEAL LIFE ON THE PR1BILOF ISLANDS. 99 



Mr. Daniel Webster, the oldest and one of the most reliable and prac- 

 tical of sealers, tells, under oath: 



In 1884 and 18X5 I noticed a decrease, and it became so marked in 1886 that every- 

 one on the islands saw it. This marked decrease in 1886 showed itself on all the rook- 

 eries on both islands. (See affidavit in Appendix.) 



And Mi. ,!.('. I led path, the local agent for tlie lessees, after an expe- 

 rience of twenty years on the islands, says: 



As the schooners (pelagic hunters) increased, the seals decreased, and the lines of 

 contraction on the rookeries were noticed to draw nearer and nearer to the beach, 

 and the killable seals became fewer in numbers and harder to h'nd. In 1886 the 

 decrease was so plain that the natives and all the agents were startled. (Ibid.) 







In 1881) tlie usual annual quota of 100,01)0 could not be found without 

 taking 50,000 young seals whose skins did not average more than 4 

 pounds each. 



It was then that the apparent and appalling suddenness of the 

 decrease aroused in the minds of those who were neither practical 

 sealers nor had definite knowledge of seal life on the rookeries doubts 

 as to the true cause of the decrease, and of the actual conditions exist- 

 ing on the seal islands so soon after an official report had appeared 

 affirming; the fact of an increase of over 2,000,000 seals in fourteen years. 



Theories, as numerous as the men who broached them, were launched 

 forth to a still doubting world; from press and platform came an array 

 of argument and statistics as erroneous as they were bewildering; and 

 when the Treasury agent's reports reached the Department it was 

 decided to send an extra special agent to the islands to thoroughly 

 investigate the conditions existing there and if possible to tind the 

 cause of the sudden decrease of the fur-seal herd; and Mr. Henry W. 

 Elliott was selected for that important work. 



When, in 1890, Mr. Elliott reached the seal islands after an absence 

 of fourteen years, and found only a scant one fifth of the seals that he 

 saw there in 1870, he impulsively and erroneously concluded that the 

 driving of the young males from the hauling grounds was injurious to 

 their healthy growth and full development; that it produced iinpotency 

 and destroyed their usefulness as breeders on the rookeries, thus pro- 

 ducing a dearth of breeding males and a surplus of barren cows, and, 

 without a shadow of proof to sustain him, he made out a most elaborate 

 report in which he labored to show the truth of his new and wonderful 

 theory, and then felt personally hurt and wronged because the Gov- 

 ernment refused to indorse or approve it. 1 



Kvery enemy of the United States in both hemispheres, however, 

 hailed it with delight, and quoted from it against us with much appro- 

 bation until, after years of patient research and scientific investiga- 

 tion on the part of the United States and of Great Britain, it was 

 demonstrated that Elliott was in error, and that pelagic sealing is the 

 cause of the sudden and rapid destruction of the American fur seal. 



In his overan xiety to prove his theory he persistently continues to 

 reiterate the story of a time when no drives were made from a number 

 of places on St. Paul Island where a great " reservoir of surplus male 

 life" was held in reserve; but I will let him tell his own story: 



In 1872-1874 when no driving was made from Southwest Point, Zapadnie, and all 

 English Bay to the westward of Neahrpahskie Kammeu, from Polavina, or anywhere 

 between it and the hauling grounds of Lukannon, then there were reservoirs of 



See letter of Secretary of the Treasury, Appendix. 



