80 PELAGIC SEALING. 



Denial of de- missioners sufficient to establish that any portion 



crease prior to 



1880. of the seal herd decreased prior to 1880, or that 



there was a paucity of male life during that 

 period on the breeding- grounds, or that the man- 

 agement and methods in force on the Pribilof 

 Islands have been a cause of decrease in the 

 Alaskan seal herd. 



PELAGIC SEALING. 



The Report an That portion of the Report of the British Com- 



apology for pe- 

 lagic sealing, missioners which considers the effects of pelagic 



sealing upon the Alaskan herd is in the nature of 



an apology and an attempted justification, for the 



Commissioners specifically admit that pelagic 



sealing is indiscriminate (Sec. 633) and tends 



towards decrease (Sees. 60, 71). The apology 



rests upon three propositions which they endeavor 



to establish by evidence principally obtained 



from interested parties at Victoria and which are 



herein treated in the order of their importance as 



recognized in the Report. 



1. That the percentage of female seals in the pelagic 

 catch is not large. 



The iudian evi- The Report first cites in this connection so- 



dence submitted. 



called "evidence," alleged to have been obtained 

 from Indian hunters at various points along the 

 Northwest Coast (Sees. 635-641), and in which 

 there is a careful avoidance of names of inform- 



