8 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



supply of male life uecessary for the full demand of the rookeries. I 

 theu declared ''that provided matters are conducted on the seal islands 

 in the future as they are to-day, 300,000 male seals, under the age of 5 

 years and over 1, may be safely taken every year from the Pribilov 

 Islands without the slightest injury to the regular birth rates or natural 

 increase thereon; provided, also, that the fur seals are not visited by 

 any plague, or i)ests, or any abnormal cause for their destruction which 

 might be beyond the control of men." ' 



1 repeatedly (jailed attention to this fact in my published report that 

 all of the killable seals required were easily taken in thirty working 

 days between June 14 and July 20 of every year, from those points 

 above specilied: and that those reservoirs of surplus male life at South- 

 west Point, Za])adnie, English Bay, Polavina, Tonkie Mees,^ etc., were 

 full aiul overflowing; that more than enough was untouched which suf- 

 ficed to meet the demands of nature on the breeding grounds. But, to 

 make certain that my theory was a good one and would be confirmed 

 by time, for I qualijied my statement at that time as a theory only, I 

 made a careful and elaborate triangulation of the area and jjosition of 

 the breeding grounds in 1872-73 on St. Paul and St. George islands, 

 aided and elaborated by my associate in 1874, Lieut. Washburn May- 

 nard, U. S'. N. This I did in order that any increase or diminution fol- 

 lowing our work could be authoritatively stated; that a foundation of 

 fact and not assumption should exist for such a, comparison of the past 

 order ivith that of the present or the future. 



Sixteen years have elapsed since that work was finished; its accuracy 

 as to the statements of fact then published, was at that time uucjues- 

 tioned on these islands, and it is to-day freely acknowledged there. But 

 what has been the logic of events'? Why is it that we find now only a 

 scant tenth of the number of young male seals which I saw there in 

 1872? When did this work of decrease and destruction so marked on 

 the breeding grounds there begin, and how? This answer follows: 



First. From overdriving, without heeding its warning : first begun in 

 1879: dropped then until 1882: then suddenly renewed again with 

 increased energy from year to year, until the end is abruptly reached 

 this season of 1890. 



Second. From the shooting of fur seals (chiefly females) in the open 

 waters of the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea : begun as a business 

 in 1880 and continued to date. 



Thus, the seal life candle has been literally "burning at both ends" 

 during the last five years! 



That day in 1879, when it became necessary to send a sealing gang 

 from St. Paul village over to Zapadnie to regularly drive from that 

 hitherto untouched reserve, was the day that danger first appeared in 

 tangible form since 1870 — since 1857, for that matter. 



The fact, then, that that abundant source of supply which had served 

 so well and steadily since 1870-1881, should fail to yield its accustomed 

 returns to the drivers, ought to have aroused some comment, ought then 

 to have been recorded by the officer in charge in behalf of the Govern- 

 ment at the close of the season's work in 1882; but it did not. Possi- 

 bly the gravity of the change a\ as not then fully appreciated by the 

 sealers themselves, either through ignorance or inattention. 



But, when in 1882. it became absolutely necessary to draw from that 

 time on, until the end of the present season, heavily and repeatedly, 



' Mouofjraph of the Seal Islands of Alaska, p. G2. 



-"Tonkie Meos," or Thin I'oiut: iKinied '"Stony Point "" by tlui white st'alei's in 

 1879, when they liist began their killing on that ground; erected a salt house, etc. 



