88 PELAGIC SEALING. 



Cause of death. by those on the Islands a day or two after the 

 investigations by these officials was a novel sug- 

 gestion, that, notwithstanding the "care" asserted 

 by them to have been taken to complete their per- 

 sonal knowledge of all documentary evidence 

 obtainable, " including the previous official cor- 

 respondence" (Sec. 8), they should have over- 

 Mr. Blaine's looked a note from Mr. Blaine to Sir J. Paunce- 

 1890. 'fote, dated March 1, 1890 (Parliamentary Paper 



[C, 6131], 1890, p. 424), in which were inclosed 

 extracts from an official report made to the House 

 of Representatives in 1889, Avhich document is 

 so often quoted in the British Report. Among 

 these extracts appears the following statement 

 made by Dr. H. H. Mclntyre ibid (p. 430) : 



"The marauding [pelagic sealing] was exten- 

 sively carried on in 1885 and 1886, and in pre- 

 vious years, and of course the pups that would 

 have been born from cows that were killed in 

 1885, or that perished through the loss of their 

 mothers during that year, would have come upon 

 the islands in 1888. * * * I would say, fur- 

 ther, that if the cows are killed late in the season, 

 say in August, after the pups are born, the latter 

 are left upon the island deprived of the mother's 

 care and, of course, perish. The effect is the same 

 whether the cows are killed before or after the 

 pups are dropped. The young perish in either 



