202 



COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



British Case, 

 Appeudix.vol.iii, 

 "Uuited States 

 No. 2 (1891)," pp. 

 IC, 17. 



Ibid., p. 19. 

 Ibid., p. 21. 

 Ibid., p. 48, 

 Ibid., p. 57. 



1880. — Colonel J. Murray dates the beginning of a steady decrease in 

 miuiliers from this yenr. 



1881. — The killing of piqis for 4'ood alone, was again strongly pro- 

 tested again.st. — (Elliott.) 



1882. — The re([uired nnmber of large skins conld no longer be obtfiined 

 in this year. — (McTntyre.) The same gentleman places the begin- 

 ning of decrease in this year. A decrease in the number of 

 '•kiilables" on St. George Island was noted. — (Wardman.) 



1885. — No increase in seals between 1882 or 1883 and this year. — 

 (Moulton, Gliddou.) 



1886-87. — The standard weight of skins was lowered in these years in 

 order to allow the Company to make up its quota by killing 

 smaller animals. 



1888. — Mclntyre states that the nnmber of seals had decreased since 

 1882, that the rookeries did not produce enough to bear the killing 

 of " 100,000 by marauders in addition to the 100,000 killed law- 

 fully." He again recommends that the killing of pups should be 

 stopped, and notes that there were too few bull seals on the 

 rookeries. He adds that the size of skins ruled still smaller than 

 in 1883. The standard weight was actually lowered from 6 lbs. 

 to 4^ lbs., so as to enable .all seals down to 2-year-olds to be taken. 



1889. — The standard weight of skins was still further lowered, for the 

 purpose of allowing the number of 100,000 to be taken. Some 

 40,000 very small skins were included, many being those of year- 

 ling seals. 



A scarcity of fall-grown virile males in proportion to females 

 was evidenced by the large number of barren females in 1890. — 

 (Elliott.) 



1890. — Finding that it would be impossible to secure the legal quota 

 of male seals in this year, the Government Agent (Gotf), for the 

 first time in the history of the islands under the United States, 

 took the responsibility of stopping the killing when only 20,995 

 skins had been secured. He speaks of the "indiscriminate 

 slaughter upon the islands, regardless of the future life of the 

 breeding rookeries," and the ''unequal distribution of ages and 

 sexes" as among the chief causes of the decline. In the same 

 year Agent Murray states that after several meetings and full dis- 

 cussion the natives unanimously declared that the decrease was 

 due to the killing of too many male seals. He affirms this belief 

 also from his own experience. Agent Lavender registers his 

 opinion to the same effect. Agent Nettleton coincides with GotFs 

 conclusions. Special Agent Elliott also particularly refers to the 

 scarcity of virile males, and adds, "that result began, it now seems 

 clear, to set in from the beginning, twenty years ago, under the 

 present system." 



233 Tlie above notes, based as far as possible on ob- 



served facts only, serve to indicate tbe general ten- 

 dency of affairs connected witli seal life on the islands 

 under the management of tlie United States, and to bear 

 out the conclusion that the nnmber originally fixed for 

 killing and retained as the legal quota till the year 1890 

 was throughout too high, and had thus from the first been 

 a leading cause of decrease of a cumulative nature. 



WARNINGS AS TO WASTEFUL KILLING DISREGARDED. 



It will be observed, that none of the above-cited protests 

 or warnings as to the excessive number .of seals killed, or 

 even those respecting the wasteful killing of suckling pups 

 for food, appear to have received attention from the Gov- 

 ernment, which, on the other hand, appear to have relied on 

 such general statements of continued increase and excel- 

 lent state of the breeding rookeries as were freely sui)plied, 

 often in the text of the same Eeports from which the above 

 extracts are made, to a date as late as 1888. 



