3f)U SEAL LIFE OX THE PHIBILOF ISLANDS. 



eventually to return to the water, save the following (see pp. 130, I'Oo, 

 L'71), which lie has mistranslated from Venianiinof. But here, too, be 

 has led himself into error: 



Nearly all the old men think and assert Nearly all the old travelers think and 



that the ->eals which are spared every assert that sparing the seals for some 



year. i. e., those which have not been years, i.e., not killing them for some, 



killed for several years, are truly of little years, does not contribute in the least to 



ti>e for breeding. 1\ ing about as it' they their increase and only amounts to losing 



were outcasts or disfranchised. them forever. 



Venianiinof thus makes no reference whatever to driving, still less 

 does he refer to any supposed effects of driving upon the reproductive 

 powers of the seal. 



It should be added that both the British commissioners and the 

 British Government have been misled by Klliott's erroneous translation. 

 (See British Commissioners' Report, sec. 712. and British counter case, 

 p. Hi;:5. 



( /' i The notion that the mere driving of a seal even over rough ground 

 renders it impotent is in itself sufficiently absurd, but it becomes still 

 more' so when considered in connection with the following extract from 

 Mr. Klliott's tield notes (p. L'44): 



I have sat for hours at a time watching the seals come up and go down in ceaseless 

 tiles of hundred^ and thousands, actually climbing up in places so steep that it was 

 all an agile man could do to follow them safely. 



(</} It follows from the above that so far as Klliott's report is relied 

 on to show considerable cause of injury to the herd, it fails entirely. 

 His belief upon this point was founded upon an utter mistake, assuming 

 that he did not wish to be misled. lie never saw any redriving or 

 overdriving until isiiOiwhcn it did exist) ; nor had any other witness 

 ever seen any worthy of notice previous to 1S!)0. 



The counsel for Great Britain, seeking for another evidence to prove 

 redriving. have recourse to the report of Mr. Got'f for 1SDO. But he 

 disproves the assertion by distinctly contrasting the large numbers of 

 young seals turned back in istMl. with the small number theretofore 

 turned back, i British counter case. p. *2\\~).\ 



// , Kliminating this clear and manifest error from Klliott's report, 

 the latter proves, and alone proves the following: That in 1S7--1S74 the 

 herd was in a condition of full and abounding prosperity ; that when lie 

 next observed it in 1*7<5, its condition was not perceptibly changed; 

 that in IS'jn, when he last observed il.it had become greatly diminished 

 in numbers, so as to make it difficult to obtain the quota of 100,000 

 \\ it hoi it redriving. 



And this is just what the ( 'nited States have from the lirst maintained. 



IV. 



1 1 is melange of observations, reasonings, conjectures, predictions, and 

 criticisms, when scrut mixed, \\ ill be found to support the positions of the 

 (,'nited States in nearly every particular, certainly in each of tlie fol- 

 lowing : 



'1, That it is in the power of the ( 'nited States and it s lessees under 

 normal conditions to gather the whole annual increase of the seals 

 without diminishing the noi mal numbers of the herd. 



Page ('.'.*: I'he polygamous habit of this animal is such that, by its own volition. I 

 do not think that more than one male annually out of fifteen born is needed on the 

 breed in ^ grou nds in 1 h 



