148 COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



DECREASE ON ISLANDS SERIOUS BEFORE PELAGIC 



SEALING. 



With reference to the attempt made in tlie Case of the 

 United States to connect the commencement of the ob- 

 served decrease on the islands with that of the increase of 

 pelagic sealing", it will be found (in addition to the general 

 evidence of deterioration during the earlier years of the 

 United States control), that after fixing as nearly as is now 

 possible the actual date at which tUe scarcity of youngs 

 male seals had become such as to hamper the lessees in 

 taking' their "quota," the British Commissioners state that 

 this stage in decline had been reached — 



Ibid., para. 688. |3gf„pg ^|^g pelagic sealing industry had attained any considerable 

 development, and some years before it could, under any valid hypothe- 

 sis, be supposed to be accountable for any such result. 



DIFFICULTY IN TAKING "QUOTA" ON THE ISLANDS. 



The opinion above expressed is further confirmed by the 

 examination of the evidence attached to the United States 

 Case, and also by the independent investigations of Mr. 

 H. W. Elliott. Mr, Elliott, it will be remembered, was 

 sent in pursuance of a Special Act of Congress to the 

 islands in 1890, to ascertain the condition of the rookeries, 

 his previous investigations having specially qualified him 



for this inquiry.* 

 170 Intreatingof thecausesand time of commencement 



of the decrease, Mr. Elliott alludes both to excessive 

 killing on the islands and to pelagic sealing, and of the 

 former he writes as follows: 



British Case, Why is it that we find now only a scant tenth of the numbers of 

 " Umted^'states y^"^" male seals which I saw there in 1872 f When did this work 

 No. 2(1891) '"p.56. of decrease and destruction, so marked on the breeding-grounds there, 

 begin, and. howf This answer follows: 



ELLIOTT TRACES THIS DIFFICULTY BACK TO 1879. 



(1.) From over-driving without heeding its warning first begun in 

 1879, dropped then until 1882, then suddenly renewed again with 

 increased energy from year to year, until the end is abruptly reached, 

 this season of 1890. 



And further on as follows : 



Ibid., p. 57. Had, however, a check been as slowly and steadily applied to that 



"driving" as it progressed in 1879-82 upon those great reserves of 

 Zapadnie, South-west Point, and Polaviua, then the present condi- 

 tion of exhaustion, complete exhaustion of the surplus supply of 

 young male seals, would not be observed — it would not have happened. 



FURTHER EVIDENCE TO THIS EFFECT. 



British Com- From evidcuce of an independent character, the British 



port.'para! 685. ^ Commissioners also show that, as early as 1879, the area of 



"driving" on the islands had to be extended, in order to 



* It will be further remembered that tlie Report then made by Mr. 

 Elliott has ncA^er been published by the United States Government. 

 The extracts in British Case, Apjteudix, vol. iii, "'United States No. 2 

 (1891)," p. 53, are those given from the Report in the "Cleveland. 

 Leader and Morning Herald." 



