414 MISCELLANEOUS. 



from year to year with tlie movements of the migratory fishes, which 

 they follow to feed upon. 



In 1869 about 85,000 young seals were taken by the natives. I never 

 stated that any such number were taken in 1870. The full number taken 

 in 1870 was less than 25,000. 



I remain yours to command, 



Charles Bryant. 



letter from judge james g. swan concerning bering sea 

 commissioners and h. w. elliott. 



[Published by permission of Judge Swan.] 



Port Townsend, Wash., October 23, 1891. 



Dear Miss Scidmore : * * * I received a telegram from Dr. Dawson, one of 

 the Royal Commissioners on Bering Sea, to go to Victoria and meet him and Sir 

 George Baden-Powell, the other commissioner, and talk about seals, and accordingly 

 I went on Monday, the 12th, and met the gentlemen at the Driard House and had a 

 very pleasant interview. Dr. Dawson said : " It is impossible for men living on rook- 

 eries to find out anything about the migratory habits of the seals, and we have 

 made this point our special study. Several books have been written on seal life from 

 information derived solely from men on the rookeries and naturally not many facts 

 have been elicited. We have found habits of seals that are not even mentioned 

 in these works. Elliott's work on seals is amusing. I have no hesitation in saying 

 that there is no important point that he takes up in his book that he does not con- 

 tradict somewhere else in the same covers. He says in one place that no imagina- 

 tion could picture more crowded islands than the seal rookeries, and, a few pages 

 after, states that the decrease of seals on those same islands was gradually getting 

 more noticeable. His work is superficial in the extreme." 



The Royal Commissioners did not confine their ivestigations to the Pribilof Group, 

 as hitherto all the American special agents and commissioners have 'done, but fol- 

 lowed down the coast, calling at various places to interview Indians, and even went 

 to Neah Bay and conversed with the old chief, who knows me and who corroborated 

 everything I have stated in my report to Professor Baird which Elliott denounced as 

 unreliable. They found that all 1 have stated about the habits of the fur-seal at 

 Cape Flattery is strictly true. Dr. Dawson said that now an opposition company 

 has the lease of the Pribilof Islands, and the Alaska Commercial Company are will- 

 ing to tell of things which hitherto they have kept to themselves and they obtained 

 some valuable information from them which they will embody in their report. There 

 are different classes of seals in Bering Sea easily distinguished. The Royal Commis- 

 sioners also have found that the seals of Cape Flattery do not go to Bering Sea at 

 all, but go to Cook's Inlet, Cross Sound, and other of the Fiords and inlets of South- 

 eastern Alaska, where they are found and killed by Indians during the same months 

 of the breeding season on the Pribilof Islands. In .short, he knocks Elliott's mun- 

 chausonisms into smithereens and vindicates me in my statement, . 



My friend, Capt. Hooper, of the United States revenue-cutter Corwin, told me on 

 his return recently that all through this controversy about seals and their habits 

 not one of the cutter officers had been required to report about seals until this sea- 

 son. "We did not attempt to make any volunteer statement," said he, "but now 

 we are required to report, and mean to tell all I know." " You have seen the seal 

 pups swimming around at Neah Bay, as I have stated," said I. " Yes, repeatedly, 

 and now that I have an opportunity I intend saying so. You have knocked Elliott 

 higher than a kite, and I am glad of it, because you have had truth on your side, 

 and Elliott had fiction and romance on his side." The old saying comes true, said 

 I, that when thieves fall out honest men get their dues. Now, that these two monop- 

 olizing corporations have fallen out, truth will prevail. I have fought Elliott for 

 more than ten years, and now I have come out victor and I am glad of it. If our 

 special agents to the rookeries had been as careful to arrive at exact facts about the 

 habits of fur-seals as this Royal Commission has, I would have been vindicated 

 long ago. 



I intend writing an article on the present status of this seal question for the Seattle 

 Post Intelligencer, and when published 1 will send you a copy. Say to inquiring 

 friends that my flag is still at the masthead and never has been lowered in this 

 controversy with Elliott. When I know I am right I will stick to the truth before 

 any one. All your Port Townsend friends are well. 

 Very cordially, 



James G. Swan. 



Miss E. R. Scidmore, 



1502 Twcnty-firat Street, Washington, D. C. 



