212 COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



MR. A. W. LAVENDER. 



In 1890, Assistant Agent A. W. Lavender writes : 



British Case, 'pjjy -writer was surprised when he first visited the rookeries to find 

 _^ppent^x,^ j ^g ,^ no yuinifi hall seals upon them ; this h)olied strange to Iiiin, and he began 

 States No. 2 to look np the cause, and it oecnircd to him that the constant driving 

 (1891)," p. 21. of young male seals and the killing of all the2-, 3-, 4-. and 5-Year-olfl8, 



United htates fji^yg were no l/ouiifi hulls left to f/o on tlie rookeries, and without young 

 Con"! 2u(i Sess. hlood the fur-seal industry will be something of the past lu a very 

 Ex. l)oc. m, p. 9. ' few years. 



ME. H. W. ELLIOTT'S UNPUBLISHED REPORT. 



It has' already been r.oted that Mr. H. W. Elliott, whose 

 Investigations and writings on the iiir-seal of the North 

 Paeit^c are so well known, was sent to thePribyloit" Islands 

 in 1890 for the special ])urpose of again inquiring into the 

 conditions of the seal interests there. This was done in 

 ptirsuance of a special Act of Congress api)roved the 5th 

 April, 1890. Though the United States Governnicnt liave, 

 unfortunately, not made public the lieportof these iiivesti- 

 gations, some portion of Mr. Elliott's Eeport, which has 

 been communicated by the author to the press, is availa- 

 ble. In the part of his IJeiiort so published, i^Ir. h^lliott 

 writes as follows, after pointing ont the meaning of the 

 extension of "driving" to the more distant rookeries in 

 1879: 



British Case, But when in 1882 it became absolutely necessary to draw from that 



'^IJmted'^'st'ate" ^""^^ ^'^ until the end of the present season, heavily and repeatedly, 



No. 2 (1891)," pp. "I'ou the hitherto untouched sources of supply for the rookeries, in 



5G-01. ' order to get tlic customary annual quota — at that time that fact, tliat 



glaring change from the prosperous and healthy precedent and record 



of 1870-81, sliould have been— it v/as amj)le warning of danger ahead; 



it seems, however, to have been entirely ignored — to have fallen upon 



inattentive or incapalde minds; for not until the Report ibr 1889 from 



the Agent of tlie (jovernment in charge, who went up in the spring of 



that year for his first season of service and experience — not until his 



Report cauie down to tlie Treasury Department has there been the 



slightest intiuuition in the annual declarations of the officers of the 



Government of the least diminution or decrease of seal life on these 



islands since my work of 1874 was finished and given to the world. 



He then i)ro('eeds to sxjecify the nature and causes of the 

 decrease, and writes: 



Had, however, a check been as slowly and steadily applied to that 

 "driving" as it progressed in 1879-82 ui>on those great reserves 

 245 of Zapadnie, South-west Point, and Poloviua, than the j^i'esent 

 condition of exhaustion, compleie exhaustion of the surplus supply 

 of young male seals, would not be obsc^rved — it would not have hap- 

 pened. But, however, no attention whatever was given to the tact 

 that in 1882 the reserves were suddenly, very suddenly, drawn u])on, 

 steadily and heavily for the first time, in order that a prompt tilling 

 oi' lilt! usual annual (juota should be made before or by the usual time 

 of closing the sealing season for the year, viz., 20th July. 



MR. GOFF. 



Referring again to Goff's Report of 1889, and to the effect 

 therein attributed to pelagic sealing, he continues: 



I was i)repared to find by these figures that the breeding-grounds 

 had lost heavily, but that did not even then satisfy me as to his state- 

 ment, which came so suddenly in 1.SS9, that little nu)ro than half the 

 established annual quota of 100,000 holluschickie [bachelor seals] suit- 

 able for killmg coulU or would be seciu'ed Ixore iu ISyOj for, great M 



