72 MANAGEMENT. 



Unfairness as to festly unfair that attention should be directed to 



statements as to . . 



Russian period, its misleading character. The Commissioners 

 state that from 1787 to 1806 the number of skins 

 taken was 50,000 annually; from 1807 to 1816, 

 47,500; and from 1817 to 1866, 25,000. The 

 desire is to suggest the inference that the killing 

 of 50,000 was excessive, the Report giving as a 

 secondary reason for the evident decrease the 

 "nearly promiscuous slaughter (for the first part 

 of this period) of seals of both sexes and all ages." 

 (Sec. 40.) 



The United States contend that the " nearly 

 promiscuous slaughter," mentioned as a second- 

 ary cause, was the principal cause, and that the 

 expression "for the first part of this period" is 

 intentionally indefinite, though it appears from 

 the Report that the killing of females was not 

 prohibited until 1847 (Sec. 37, p. 8). The Report 

 states that in 1836 an exceptionally severe winter 

 caused a great mortality among the seals, so that 

 only 4,100 of all classes were observed on therook- 

 eries (Sec. 800), which reduced the birth rate for 

 a number of years and necessarily, also, the 

 annual number of skins secured. The inclusion 

 of this time of scarcity in all classes of seals in 

 the period of 1834 to 1866 is most misleading as 

 to the question of how many male seals can be 

 taken when the rookeries are in their normal 



