AN ALLEGED CAUSE OF DECREASE. 77 



ment of the Report that the standard of skins 



was lowered from time to time, implying 1 an 



increasing scarcity of males (Sec. 694). In 1876 of A ISai7cL?ch! 



the average weight of all the skins of the Alaska 1876 ' 1889 - 



catch was 8 pounds, which remained about the 



average till 1886, the average weight being in 



that year 10^ pounds; from that time, coinci- 



dentally with the increase of pelagic sealing. 



the weight dropped to 9| pounds in 1886, 8| 



pounds in 1887, 8| pounds in 1888, and finally 



in 1889 to 7^ pounds, the lowest standard ever 



reached. 1 The United States, therefore, deny 



the statements made in the Report as to the 



reduction of the "standard of weights" (page 



119, C). 



The Commissioners also rely upon a statement The number of 



J l seals taken from 



alleged to have been made to them by Mr. Northeast Poiut - 

 Daniel Webster that, in 1874 and 1875, from 

 35,000 to 36,000 skins were taken from North- 

 east Point rookery and that, since 1879, from 

 29,000 to 18,000 skins only had been taken 

 there, thus implying a large decrease in the seals 

 resorting to this great rookery (Sec. 677). The 

 annual killings on Northeast Point are combined 

 in a table submitted herewith, 2 which gives the 

 numbers annually taken thereon and the percent- 



1 Max Heilbronner, post p. 369 and table facing. 



2 Table of seals killed on Northeast Point, post p. 427. 



