48 TESTIMONY 



seals annually for their skins. Tlie report was, in the absence of more 

 reliable information, largely based npou tlie traditions and opinions of 

 the natives and traders, to whom the management of the sealeries was 

 intrnsted by the Knssiau Fur Company, and was afterwards found to be 

 erroneous in many particulars. Upon the main point, however, that 

 of fixing 100,000 seals as the proper number to be killed annually, we 

 have shown by the experience of many years to have been correct. 

 This number was easily secured every year from 1871 

 skinr^jfsiiy "take^u to 1885, and at the same time a constant increase of 

 ftom 1871 to 1885. ^^q gg.Q rookcrics Avas observed. I am satisfied that 

 with good management upon the islands, and the cessation of pelagic 

 sealing, this number could have been secured annually up to this 

 time, "and for an indefinite future. The total number of seals was 

 stated in that report to be "not less than 4,000,000 

 niatioil?''*^^""^^^*'^' upon the two islands." I am satisfied that this esti- 

 mate was too high, and that the more recent estimates 

 published in the reports of ofBcers of the Treasury Department who 

 have been at different times stationed upon the islands, or detailed to 

 report upon the sealeries, have been still more erroneous than my own. 

 My figures were made without any attempt at mathematical computa- 

 tion, and were mere guesses at the possible number of seals upon the 

 different rookeries. 



My successors have attempted to measure the ground occupied by 

 the seals, and by multiplying the number upon a given area as ascer- 

 tained by count, by the whole area of the rookeries, to aiTive at an 

 approximation to the total number. They added to their comi)utation 

 a large percentage to cover the number supposed to be in the water at 

 the time, but did not subtract for the inaccessible portions of the 

 grounds, vast tracts of which are covered with bowlders and lava rocks, 

 where no seals could lie, or skirted with acclivities they 

 mSingpopuiation!"' could uot asccud. That is, the estimates were made 

 from measurements necessarily taken after the seals 

 had left the rookeries, and sometimes weeks or months afterward, with 

 only the recollection of the ground they had formerly occupied to guide 

 the observer. Many sections were included which had been but thinly 

 populated, if at all. An attempt to secure even an approximative 

 census of seals may well be regarded with suspicion. Yet their habits 

 are so well defined and unvarying that it is an easy matter to determine 

 But easy to deter- whcthcr they iiicreasc or decrease from year to year, 

 mine an lucioase or bccausc they always occujiy the same portions of cer- 

 d( crease. ^^^^ bcaches, and simply expand or contract the bound- 



aries of the rookeries as they become more or less numerous. I re- 

 turned to Washington, D. C, in November, 18G9, and Avas placed in 

 charge of work during the following winter and spring pertaining to 

 Alaska and the sealeries, in the ofidce of the Secretary of the Treasury. 

 In June, 18G9, I accepted the position of general agent of the Alaska 

 Commercial Company, and in the following August, when the lease of 

 the right to take seals was executed, I became superintendent of seal 

 fisheries for the lessees, and remained in this position until the spring 

 of 1890. In this capacity I visited the Pribilof Islands, and remained 

 there every sealing season except those of 1883, 1884, and 1885, and 

 Drivin.randkiiiiD.' ^"^'^ there also during the winter of 1871-'72. In kill- 

 nvingam i iDg. ^^^^ geals fcr their skins, the methods employed by the 

 Eussian Fur Company, pi ior to American occupation, were closely fol- 

 lowed, except that many innovations and improvements were instituted 

 and adopted alter the first y^ar of the lease. The work was chiefly 



