ALLEGED CHANGES. Ill 



Arbitrators is called to the fact that the Pribilof . ?S? f S?"*^ 



inhabited tor 100 



Islands have been inhabited by man for a cen- years - 



tury, and the seals have not deserted their home 



though slaughtered indiscriminately in the early 



years of the Russian occupation; and to the fur- slaughter on 



Robben Island, 



ther fact that in 1851-'53 the rookeries of Robben i85i-'53. 



Island were cleared of fur-seals (Sec. 510), but 



the few that escaped returned to the rookeries 



in the years following (Sees. 510, 511). 



The Commissioners have endeavored to estab- Error in state- 

 ment relied on by 



lish their position as to the change of habits of the Re P ort « 

 seal herd, through the undue disturbance of the 

 rookeries, by citing the fact that Capt. Bryant 

 referred to the abundance of fur-seals along the 

 coasts of Oregon, Washington, and British Co- 

 lumbia in 1869 (Sec. 422); and they seek to 

 create the impression thereby that this was directly 

 the result of the great numbers killed in 1868 on 

 the Pribilof Islands. The Commissioners, through 

 no error of their own, have been led into making 

 this incorrect statement. The "Monograph of 

 North American Pinnipeds," quoted by them, so 

 states ; but Dr. J. A. Allen, the author of the work, 

 says that the year was 1870, instead of 1869, as 

 erroneously printed. 1 The statement as to the 

 abundance of seals off the Oregon coast was 

 first published by Dr. Allen in the "Bulletin of 



1 Letter of Dr. Allen, post p. 413. 



