226 COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



LIEUTENANT MAYNARD, 1874. 



Lieutenant Maynard, U. S. N., in his Special Eeport of 

 1874, also writes : 



H. E., 44th, There has heen a -waste in taking the skins, due partly to the inex- 

 Coug., ]st Sess., perience of the Company's agent, and partly to accident and the care- 

 Ex. Uoc. 43, p. 9. jpgj^jjggg qJ- ^jjg natives. In making the drive, particularly if they 

 are long on, and the sun happens to pierce through the fog, some of 

 the seals become exhausted and die at such a distance from the salt- 

 houses that their skins cannot Avell be carried to them by hand, and 

 are therefore left upon the bodies. 



VENIAMINOV, 1842. 



The observations above quoted are, however, but an 

 amplification and repetition of the still earlier notes of the 

 Eussian chronicler, Veniaminov, who, referring to about 

 the year 1842, writes : 



Census Eoport Nearly all the old men think and assert that the seals which are 

 p. 141. ^ ' spnred every year, i. e., those which have not been killed for several 

 years, are truly of little use for breeding, lying about as if they were 

 outcasts or disenfranchised. 



CAPTAIN SCAMMON. 



Speaking of the actual killing of seals upon the Priby- 

 loff Islands, under the Russian management, Captain 

 Scammon further says : 



"MarineMam- xhe loud moanings of the animals when the work of slaughtering 

 malia," p. 156. j^ going on beggars description ; in fact, they manifest vividly to any 

 observing eye a tenderness of feeling not to be mistaken. Even the 

 simple-hearted Aleutians say that "the seals shed tears." 



Notwithstanding these early strictures on the 

 264 method of driving, and its effect in loss of seals and 

 impaired virility of the survivors, the method has 

 been continuously jDractised on the islands, with scarcely 

 a word of recorded remonstrance, till within the past few 

 years, the reduced number of seals renewed inquiry and 

 drew attention to the modes employed. 



MR. H. W. ELLIOTT, 1890. 



When Mr. Elliott again visited the Pribyloff Islands in 

 1890 — in the light of facts, he felt compelled to change his 

 previously- formed opinions as to the perfection of the 

 methods there in use. He writes as follows* : 



British Case, J can see now, in the light of the record of the work of sixteen con- 

 iij''^'''"lJ^ni ted secutive years of sealing, very clearly one or two points which were 

 states No. 2 wholly invisible to my sight in 1872-74. I can now see what that 

 (1891)," pp. 5C, effect of driving overland is upon the physical well-being of a normal 

 ^^' fur-seal, and, upon that sight, feel warranted in taking the following 



ground. 



The least reflection will declare to an observer that, while a fur-seal 

 moves easier on land, and freer than any or all other seals, yet, at the 

 same time, it is an unusual and laborious effort, even when it is vol- 

 untary; therefore, when thousands of young male seals are suddenly 

 aroused to their utmost power of laud locomotion, over rough, 

 sharp rocks, rolling clinker stones, deep loose sand, mossy tussocks, 

 and other equally severe impedimenta, they in their fright exert them- 



* Quotation is again made from that part of his Report which ho 

 has himself published. 



