LETTERS FROM DR. ALLEN AND CAPT. BRYANT. 413 



LETTERS TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE. 



[American Museum of Natural History, Central Park (77th St. & 8th ave.) Department of Mam- 

 malogy and Ornithology. J. A. Allen, curator. Frank M. Chapman, asst. curator.] 



New York City, Dee. 7, 1892. 

 Hon. John W. Foster, 



Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. : 



Dear Sir : Y our letter of yesterday is before me. In the letter of 

 Captain Bryant, dated June 14, 1870, and published by me (Bull. Mus. 

 Comp. Zool., Vol. ii, No. 1, Aug. 1870, p. 88), the phrase " the pres- 

 ent year " refers to the year 1870 and not to the year 1869. 



The words "in 1869" on p. 332 of the 'monograph' should read in 

 1870. 



In this connection it is safe to assume that we have no definite infor- 

 mation as to the number of seals occurring off the coast of Oregon, 

 Washington, and British Columbia during the years immediately pre- 

 ceding the year 1869, and we only know of their numbers there in 1869 

 in consequence of the fact that it was during this year " that the first 

 practical essays were made in taking seals at sea " off this coast. (See 

 British Report, Sec. 64, and Judge Swan's letter, p. 172, and first para- 

 graph of p. 174.) Probably seals would have been found here in just as 

 great abundance in previous years had any one had occasion to especially 

 look for them. 



Yery truly, yours, 



J. A. Allen. 



Mattapoisett, Mass., Bee. 15th, 1892. 

 Hon. John W. Foster, 



Secretary of State, Washington, D. C: 



Dear Sir : I am in receipt of your communication of the 14th inst- 

 and hasten to reply. My letter of June 4, 1870, to Prof. Allen, was a 

 private letter containing such fragmentary additional information as I 

 had picked up in conversation with various parties whom I had met 

 during my stay in San Francisco while waiting for the revenue cutter 

 Lincoln to be got ready; and also from Capt. Scammon of the Lincoln 

 who had had some previous experience in taking hair- seals for their 

 oil on the coasts and islands of southern California. 



In my search for information I found small parcels of dried fur-seal 

 skins that had found their way down from the coast of British Columbia, 

 through various channels ; as nearly as I can remember I estimated them 

 in all from fifteen hundred to two thousand skins; they were mostly 

 the pups of the year before (1869), and in their present condition were 

 hardly worth shipping to London. I was told by these parties holding 

 them that more than the usual number had been seen and taken 

 that season — the word "season" in this instance referring to the pre- 

 vious winter and spring, that of lS69-'70 — after the seals had left the 

 islands in 1869. 



In making these inquiries I was told by these parties who had pur- 

 chased these skins that more than the usual number had been taken 

 there that season. In referring to this statement, it was intended to 

 mean more seals, comparatively, had been seen ihan in ordinary years. 

 I doubt not that the popular demand had stimulated the search more 

 than usual, which would account for the greater number observed. 



I have no doubt, however, that the numbers of seals seen there vary 



