SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. ^ 105 



In 1.SS4 an increased fleet of pelagic sealers appear upon the scene, 

 and with vessels specially designed and fully equipped for the work r 

 they follow the seals from year's end to year's end, shooting, spearing, 

 and ripping up all they overtake, without a thought or care for age, 

 sex, or condition; and immediately the rookeries show signs of diminu- 

 tion to those who, like Morgan and Webster, had the experience and 

 the opportunity to observe it. 



Dr. Mclntyre, in the letter already quoted, continues: 

 The contrast between the present condition of seal life and that of the first dec- 

 ade of the lease is so marked that the most inexpert can not fail to notice it. Just 

 when the change commenced I am unable from personal observation to say, for, aa- 

 you will remember. I was in ill health, and unable to visit the islands in 1883, 1884, 

 and iss.~>. 1 left the rookeries in 1882 in their fullest and best condition, and found 

 them in lSS(i siln-ady showing a slight falling off, and experienced that year for the 

 first time some difficulty in securing just the class of animals in every case that we 

 desired. * For the cause of the present diminution of seal life we have 

 not far to look. It is directly traceable to the illicit killing of seals of every age 

 and sex during the last few years in the waters of the North Pacific and Bering Sea. 

 We are in no way responsible for it. During the first thirteen years of the lease 

 comparatively few seals were killed by marauders, and we were then able, 

 under our careful management, to produce a decided expansion of the breeding 

 rookeries. 



Dr. Mclutyre's letter was written in 1889, when the effects of pelagic 

 sealing tirst startled the civilized world, and his statements were met 

 with doubt or open denial from all who were ignorant of the situation, 

 and with the charge, from pelagic sealers and their apologists, that the 

 Americans had destroyed the seals by overdriving on land. 



The absurdity and the injustice of this idle charge have been shown 

 in many ways during the discussion of the seal question, but it is reit- 

 erated again and again by those who have established what they are 

 pleased to call an "industry," the chief corner stone of which is the 

 killing of the female seals at sea of seals about to become mothers, 

 from whose suddenly ripped bellies the unborn young are cut, or torn 

 out alive and thrown into the ocean of mothers whose young have 

 been left upon the rookeries during their absence on the feeding grounds, 

 left to die of slow starvation where, as Captain Coulson truly says, 

 u the shores are lined with emaciated, hungry little fellows, with their 

 eyes turned toward the sea, uttering plaintive cries for their mothers, 

 which were destined never to return." 



And. hard as it may seem, and difficult to believe though it may be, 

 it was with this same pelagic sealer, or for his sake at least, we were 

 asked to arbitrate the question of our exclusive right of property in 

 the seal herd, and of our right to protect them outside of the ordinary, 

 "3 miles," limit from the land upon which they were born and which 

 they made their home. 



Even Mr. Elliott was induced to lend his influence to the scheme for 

 arbitration, and, after his return from the seal islands in 1890, we find 

 him addressing Mr. Elaine, who was then Secretary of State, as follows: 



Let me again, just before I leave, earnestly urge that you do not hesitate to invite 

 an English commission to meet us, and jointly visit and view the Pribilof seal rook- 

 eries next summer at the height of the breeding season in .July. That wreck and 

 ruin thereon, which I saw last summer, will be there, and still more pronounced 

 on the same ground next year (1891); it will not fail to arouse the interest and sym- 

 pathy of the British agents, and the sight of these dwindling herds will be a most 

 eloquent and satisfactory proof of the correctness of your position taken in your 

 leading letter of .January 22, 1890, and upon the truth of which your whole argument 

 in the Bering Sea question rests. It is not quite fair to ask John Bull to believe me 

 now, but I assure you that if he gets up there he will soon see enough to 



make him respect me, and be our sworn friend in cooperating to save the fur seal 

 from impending extermination. Indeed, he should be allowed to see for himself now; 

 it is only manly and fair in us to allow him to do so under the circumstances. 

 (Elliott to Hlaine, December 19, 1890.) 



