COUNTER-CASE OP GREAT BRITAIN. 215 



out for killing, and every seal growing up has to run this gauntlet for 



Ills life his .second, third, and i'onrth year before lie escai>es to 



248 s^row up as a breediu.!4' bull. Thus it w.ill be seen the method of 

 killing does not admit of the setting apart ot' a special number 



and taking tin; remainder for tlie quota for market, and the only 

 possible way to preserve the requisite number for breeding purposes 

 is to restrict the number to be killed so far within the iirodnct as to 

 insxire enough escaping lor this oijject. 



When tile lease was put into practical operation in 1871, there was 

 a very large excess of breeding males on hand; since tlieu this sur- 

 plus has been diminished l)y the dying out of the old seals faster than 

 there has been younger seals allowed to escape and grow up to fill 

 their places, until the present stock is insufficient to meet the necessities of 

 the increasing number of breeding females. 



>f A' If * » 



One other cause should l)e stated that has directly contributed to 

 diminishing the present stock of breeding males. During the season of 

 1868, belore the enactment of the prohibitory law, the several parties 

 sealing tliere took 240,0(10 seals monthly [^sic mostly?] of the products 

 of the years 1866 and 1867. These would have matured and been 

 added to the present stock of breeiling males in the years 1872 and 

 1873, and to this a part of the prospective deficiency is to be attributed. 

 ^ ^ * -jf * 



Constant and careful attention has been given to the condition and 

 changes in the different classes of seals, and the data kept for com- 

 parison from year to year, and the result, as summed up the present 

 year in com})ariKon with 1870, shows the present stock of breeding 

 females has steadily increased in a ratio of 5 or 6 per cent, per annum 

 added to the original stock, whiJe the stock of breeding bulls has deereasccl, 

 by loss from age and other causes, so much faster than tliere has been 

 ■young seals grown v}) to replace them, that its jyresent condition is only 

 equal 1o the present demand, and the stock of half-hulls, or those to mature 

 in the next two years, is not sufficient to meet the icants of the increase in the 

 females. Under these circumstances, I feel it my duty to recommend 

 that lor the lu'xt two years the numl>er of seals to be taken for their 

 skins be linnted to 8.5,000 per annum, to be apportioned between the 

 two islands as follows : for St. Paul's Island 70,000, and for St. George 

 Islaud 15,000. 



It will be observed from the above that, in his contem- 

 poraneous Keport, Captain Bryant attributes the deftciency 

 of males priinarily to the high rate of killing-, tbougli he 

 also mentions the excessive slaughter of 18G8, as a second- 

 ary cause. 



IN 1876. 



In his evidence given before a Committee of Congress in 

 the following year (1870), Captain Bryant testifies to sub- 

 stantially the same effect: 



Q. Your opinion, then, is that the number of 100,000 on the 



249 two islands, authorized by law, can be regularly taken without ,11. K., 44th 



diminishingthe crop or number of seals coming to the island? — \""''^''. ^^ ^^'^Si' 

 A T 1 -4. r 1 '^i ^ ,. , , , ... , . " 1 , 1 T i> . JlPliiirt No. 623, 



A. 1 don t teel ([Uite sure ot that, as will be seen in my detailed Keport p 99, 



to the .Secretary of the Treasury, included in the evidence which has 



been laid liefore the (.'ommittee. There were indications of diminution 



in the number of male seals. 



I gave that and another reason, which I explained at large in that 



Report. In the season of 1868, before the prohibitory law was passed 



or enforced, numerous parties sealed on the islands at will, and took 



about 240,000 or 250,000 seals. Thev killed mostly all the product of 



1866-67. 



IN 1880. 



In his statement drawn up for Professor Allen, again, 

 Captaiu Bryant ^vrites: 



The decieaso in the number of breeding males maybe considered as "Monograph 

 having reached its minimum [s/c] in 1876. In 1877, the last season I of North Aincii. 

 spent at the islands, there was an evident increase in the number of p'^^gg """'^^ ' 

 this class. 



