COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 209 



NATIVES IN 1892. 



Tlie above mny be referred to also in repiy to the t^Yo unitpd states 

 statemeiits of natives quoted in tbe United Wtates Case. Case, pp- n2, 173. 



MR. GOFF IN 1892. 



Mr. C. J. Gofif, Government Agent on the Pribyloif 

 Isbniids, and to whom Mr. Murray's Keport last cited is 

 addressed, is quoted as testifying — 



that, altliongli the lessees had much di fficnlty in i»rocnriu,a,- their quota j, . , 

 in 1889, a siit'iicieut uumber of males were reserved lor breeding ' -'P- 

 purposes. 



Tn the affidavit upon which this statement is based, the 

 following passage is, however, found: 



I have uo douht, tliat I reported, that the taking of 100,000 skius in Unilietl states 

 1889 aifected the male life on the islands, and out into the reserve of '^;"«V.-'^i'Pe;''^ix, 

 male seals necessary to preserve annually for breeding purposes intbo ^'" ' "' ^" ^'-'^' 

 future, but this fact did not become evident until it was too late to 

 repair the fault that year. 



MR. GOFF IN 1889. 



Mr. Goff's Eeport of 1889, to which he here refers, though 

 not published by the United States Government, has been 

 produced in reply to a Notice given in conformity with the 

 Treaty of Arbitration. In this Report he writes: 



The prosperity of these world-i'enowned rookeries is fast fading ibid., Appen- 

 away vnder the j^resmt annual cateli allowed hij lair, and this indiscreet ihx, vol. i, p. 85. 

 slaughter now being waged in thi^se waters will only hasten the eud 

 of tile fur-seals of the PribylolF Islands. 



MR. GOFF IN 1890. 



His Eeport of 1890 was protested against by th.e Sec his letter, 

 241 North American Commercial Company, and he "vvas ^^..Jj^y,, J^^''^ 



removed from office, as he believed, in consequence isoi- 

 of this protest. In his Eeport for 1800, he concurs gener- 

 ally in Mr. Elliott's views (quoted below), and writes as 

 follows : 



It is evident that the many preying evils upon seal life — the killing Britisli Case, 

 of the seals in the Pacitic Ocean along the Aleutian Islands, and as ^PP'^'lf''?''' ■ }"h 

 they come through the passes to the Bchring Sea, by the ])irates [sic] states 'iXo? 2 

 in these waters, and tlie ivdiscrini'mate slaughter upon theislands. regard- (18ni),"])p. 16, 17. 

 less of the future liic of the breeding rookeries, have at last with their , Ignited states 

 combined destrncti-.o power reduced these rookeries to their present ?,*^"'^ V' • ^^^^ 

 impoverished condition, and to such an unequal distiibuti(Ui of ages jj^. l)oc. 49, p. 5! 

 and sexes that it is but a (juestion of a few- years, unless immediately 

 attended to, before the seal family of the i'ribylov group of islands 

 will be a thing of the past. NotliAvithstandiug the fact that the seals 

 Avere looked upon as inexhaustible, and were oi'licially reported to be 

 increasing as late as 1888, the time Las suddenly come when experi- 

 ment and imagination must cease, aud the truth bo told. 



Major W. IT. Williams, Government Agent on the islands (.ysf^'"\if''^^ 

 in 1891, is the only other \vitness specially cited by the 

 United States in support of the existence of a sufficient 

 number of males. Hq had not previously visited the 

 islands, and his Eeport for the year in question has not 

 been published. 



B S, PT VIII 14 



