AN ALLEGED CAUSE OF DECEEASE. 69 



The alleged excessive killing of male seals Foundation of 



° charge ot exces- 



must rest entirely on the proposition, which the sive killing. 

 Report endeavors to establish, that, by means of 

 this license to slaughter 100,000 young males on 

 the Islands, the breeding males have become so 

 depleted as to be unable to fertilize the females, 

 thus creating a decrease in the birth rate suffi- 

 cient to account for the present condition of the 

 Alaskan seal herd. To establish this, the Com- 

 missioners refer, among other things, to the re- 

 port to the Treasury Department in 1875 of 

 Captain Charles Bryant, This official did, as Captain Bryant 



-ri ra a as a witness for 



stated m the Report (oec. 678), advise the Secre-the commission- 

 ers. 

 tary of the Treasury, in view of his observations, 



to reduce the number of the quota to 85,000 

 skins; but the true reason of this recommendation 

 is obscured in the Report by a collection of quota- 

 tions from various writings, of which he is the 

 author, and by placing an erroneous interpreta- 

 tion on his language. 



The reasons for his report of 1875 are clearly Reasons for Lis 



report. 



shown by an examination of his testimony before 

 a committee of the House of Representatives in 

 1876. Captain Bryant there makes the follow- 

 ing statement: "In the season of 1868, before 

 the prohibitory law was passed and enforced, 

 numerous parties sealed on the Islands at will and 

 took about two hundred and fifty thousand seals. 



