180 COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



It is therefore somewhat remarkable to find, notwith- 

 standing the apparently complete absence of comparable 

 observations in the reports on the islands in previous years, 

 that it is now maintained, not only that such results have 

 been concurrent with the progress of pelagic sealing, but 

 that they have been observed to increase ^jari passu with 

 For references the growth of such Sealing at sea. In ])revious reports on 

 offid^"^*d^o c^u^ tlie islands, where the death of "pups" has received men- 

 ments, see Brit- tion at all, it has been apparently uniformly attributed to 



ish Commission- i? j. • •j.i j. • ^ j.i 



era' Report, One 01 two causcs, I. €., Cither to Overrunning oi the young 

 paras. 328-333. \)y adult scals, 01 dcstruction of the young by surf during 

 storms. 



THE MORTALITY OF YOUNG SEALS IN 1891, FIRST 

 NOTICED BY BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



Ibid., para. 346. The mortality noticed in 1891, was, moreover, attributed 

 to the same causes by such of the officials and natives on 

 the Pribyloff Islands as were first addressed on the sub- 

 ject by the British Commissioners, showing very plainly 

 that up to that time no other explanation had been present 

 to their minds. 



EVIDENCE CITED BY UNITED STATES TO SHOW THAT 

 DEAD "pups" seldom SEEN ON PRIBYLOFF ISLANDS 

 TILL 1884. 



In presenting the evidence upon which dependence is 

 placed in this matter in the Case of the United States, Dr. 

 W. H. Dall, who visited the Pribyloff Islands in 1880, Cap- 

 tain Bryant, who was on the islands from 1870 to 1877, Mr. 

 Moulton, who was on St. George Island from 1877 to 1881, 

 Mr. Otis, on the islands from 1879 to 1881, and Mr. Glidden, 

 Government Agent from 1882 to 1885, are first cited, to 

 prove that dead pups were very seldom or scarcely ever 

 seen upon the islands up to the year 1884. 



BUT THIS IS CONTRADICTED BY PREVIOUS REPORTS OF 

 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. 



But Mr. H. W. Elliott, writing in 1875, and as the result 

 of his experience gained in 1872-74, speaks of the normal 

 presence of — 



"Eeporton the decaying carcasses of old seals and the many pups which have beeu 

 ^^*',.°^^.*'^"° .°^ killed accidentally by the old bulls while tightiug with and charging 

 Alaska^" p. 149! l>3.ck and forth against one another. 



209 Lieutenant W. Maynard, United States navy, 



writing of the islands in 1874, says : 



44tli Cong., ist Many of them [the pups] are killed by the surf, particularly if the 

 Sess., H. R., Ex. season is a stormy one, as they are not strong enough swimmers to save 

 Uoc.43, p. 4. themselves from being dashed against the rocks by it. 



"Monograph Still again in 1876, Captain Bryant notes the destruction 

 cL^p^nni^^s'" ^^ ^ large number of pups in the autumn by a storm, a 

 pp! soT.'s" 8^^ ^' destruction so great in fact that he anticipated its effect 



Bull. Mus. would appear in 1880; and the same authority further refers 

 u°No i°p '97 °^" ^^ ^^® destruction of young seals which always results from 

 ' ' ' " a stampede of the older animals. 



