30 



ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



Dor from Tolstoi sine* July 20, 1890; so that, instead of being the 

 places most driven from, they are the places not driven from at all in 

 1891. 



The following table, from the official records of the Treasury Depart- 

 ment, gives all of the killiugs for food and for skins (quota and mod m 

 vivendi) from the close of the season July 20, 1890, to the close of the 

 season August 10, 1891 : 



Surely this is sufficient to convince every reasonable man that instead 

 of impartially inquiring into the causes of the decrease of the seal herd 

 and the best possible method of protection, as was originally intended, 

 the commissioners have endeavored to screen the result of the work of 

 the pelagic sealer by making statements about drives, stampedes, and 

 epidemics on the islands which the facts do not warrant. 



In another chapter will be found quotations, bearing on this phase 

 of the case, from the argument of United States counsel before the Tri- 

 bunal of Arbitration, to which I respectfully call the most earnest atten- 

 tion. 



In order to show that the " dead-pup" problem was not a new thing 

 on the islands before the British commissioners " discovered" it in 

 1891, 1 quote from the testimony of intelligent native chiefs and sealers 

 and of many agents of the Government and of the lessees, who have had 

 many years' experience on the seal islands, and they are unanimous in 

 saying that previous to 1884 there were practically no dead pups to be 

 seen on the rookeries; agents who were on the islands previous to 1884 



