FUR-SEAL HEED OF ALASKA. 35 



"The Chairman. I am going to ask Mr. Elliott if it is a difficult matter to count 

 them; he is an expert on the subject. 



"Mr. Elliott. They can not be counted. 



"Senator Nelson. What is the amount of the herd now? 



"Mr. Elliott. Nobody knows definitely. There may be 50,000, there may be 

 60,000, there may be 100,000. There is just a little thin line of life left. 



"Senator Nelson. "What was the amount of the herd when the lessees took it — 

 the first lease? 



"Mr. Elliott. Four million seven hundred and fifty thousand. 



"Senator Shively. "What year was that? 



"Mr. Elliott. 1872. 



"Senator Shively. And now you say there may be 50,000 or 100,000? 



"Mr. Elliott. Nobody knows. 



"Senator Shively. Well, what is your estimate? 



"Mr. Elliott. My estimate is like theirs. I have not been up there since 1890. 



"Senator Shively. Is it a mere guess, and is it possible that there has been no 

 reduction? 



"Mr. Elliott. Since 1890? 



"Senator Shively. Since 1872. 



"Mr. Elliott. Oh, no; no, indeed. We knew definitely 



"Senator Hitchcock. You could count them, then, when you were up there, and 

 found that there were 4,000,000; why is it not possible that they can be counted now? 



"Mr. Elliott. I did not count them. I surveyed the area of the breeding grounds 

 upon which they rested, that area being definitely ascertained by a plane table sur- 

 vey. Into that superficial area I multiplied a composite unit of calculation. These 

 seals in lying upon this ground obeyed the natural law of distribution — so many to a 

 given area, never more here nor there, but uniformly distributed over this area, 

 whether it was large or small. That area being ascertained by a plane table survey — 

 a topographical survey — I multiplied into that superficial area a unit of space occu- 

 pied by the composite seal, and that gave me 4,700,000. 



"The Chairman. For whom were you acting then? 



"Mr. Elliott. The Smithsonian Institute — the Government. 



"The Chairman. Under whose authority? 



"Mr. Elliott. The Secretary of the Treasury. 



"Senator Hitchcock. Is that the only time you have ever estimated them? 



"Mr. Elliott. The second time I took the subject up was nearly 20 years later — 

 in 1890. 



"Senator Hitchcock. And what did you find? 



"Mr. Elliott. I aj^plied the same system, and I found 959,000. 



"Senator Shively. As against 4,000,000 on your first survey? 



"Mr. Elliott. Yes. And since then they have been shrinking and shrinking, 

 and the London sales show in the last six or seven years that they have been killing 

 nothing but the dregs; there is practically nothing else left. 



"Senator Nelson, ^^^lat is your opinion about land killing? 



"Mr. Elliott. The land killing is primarily responsible for the destruction of the 

 herd. I brought the proof — overwhelming proof — before two committees of Congress. 



"Senator Nelson. That is the conclusion of the subcommittee which went up 

 there in 1903; we came to the conclusion that they not only ought to stop pelagic 

 sealing, l>ut all land killing, in order to restore the herd. 



"Mr. Elliott. Yes, sir. 



"Senator Nelson. Did not the Russians adopt that course? 



"Mr. Elliott. Certainly. They were compelled to do it. When there was no 

 pelagic killing of the herd, they destroyed the herd by the same methods we employ 

 to-day. 



" Senator Nelson. For how long did they prohibit killing? 



"Mr. Elliott. Ten years. 



"Senator Nelson. And that restored the herd? 



"Mr. Elliott. Yes; although not to its full capacity. 



"Senator Nelson. At that time, when the Russians took that course, there was no 

 pelagic sealing? 



"Mr. Elliott. They had never heard of it. 



"Senator Nelson. It was all land killing? 



"Mr. Elliott. It was all land killing. 



"Senator Nelson. And yet the Russians found it necessary to stop that altogether 

 to restore the herd? 



"Mr. Elliott. Exactly. They were killing the male seals, as we have been doing 

 for 20 years. 



