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APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 741 
Although IT was unable to detect any sign of existing danger or injury to these 
interests of our Government on these Islands of Pribyloff in 1872-74, yet the need of 
caution on the part of the Agents of the Government and their close annual serutiny 
was pointed out and urged in my published work of 1874* in the following language 
pp. 75-77 
- Ry Until ee arrival on the seal islands, April 1872, no steps had been taken towards 
ascertaining the extent or the importance of these interests of the Government by 
either the Treasury Agent in charge or the agent of the Company leasing the 
islands, This was a matter of no special concern to the latter, but was of the first 
importance to the Government. It had, however, failed to obtain definite know ledge 
upon the subject on account of the inaccurate mode of ascertaining the number ‘of 
seals which had been adopted by its agent, who relied upon an assumption of the 
area of the breeding ‘rookeries,’ but who never took the trouble to ascertain the 
area and position of these great seal grounds intrusted to his care. 
“After a careful study of the subject during two whole seasons, and a thorough 
review of it during this season of 1874, in company with my associate, Lieutenant 
Maynard, I propose to show plainly and in sequence the steps which have led me to 
a solution of the question as to the number of fur-seals on the Pribyloff Islands, 
together with the determination of means by which the Agent of the Government 
will be able to correctly report upon the condition of the seal-life from year to year. 
‘At the close of my investigation for the season of 1872, the fact became evident 
that the breeding seals obeyed implicitly a fine instinctive law of distribution, so 
that the breeding ground occupied by them was always covered by seals in an exact 
ratio, greater or less to the area to be held; that they always covered the ground 
evenly, never crowding in at one place and scattering out at another; that the seals 
lay just as thickly together where the rookery was a small one of only a few thou- 
sand as at ‘Nah Speel,’ near the village, as they did where a million of them came 
together as at North-east as Point. 
“This fact being determined, it is at once plain that, just as the breeding grounds 
of the fur-seal on these islands expand or contract in area from their present dimen- 
sions, so the seals will have increased or diminished. 
“‘Tmpressed, therefore, with the necessity and the importance of obtaining the 
exact area and position of these breeding grounds, I surveyed them in 1872-73 for 
that purpose, and resurveyed them this season of 1874. The result has been care- 
fully drawn and plotted out, as presented in the accompanying Maps. 
“The time for taking these boundaries of the rookeries is during the week of 
their greatest expansion, or when they are as full as they are to be for the season, 
and before the regular system of compact even organization breaks up, the seals 
then scattering out in pods or clusters, straying far back, the same number covering 
then twice as much ground in places as they did before, when marshalled on the 
rookery ground proper; the breeding seals remain on the rookery perfectly 
55 quiet, and en masse, for a week or ten days during the period of greatest 
expansion, which is between the 10th and 20th July, giving ample time for 
the agent to correctly note the exact boundaries of the area covered by them. ‘This 
step on the part of the Government officer puts him in possession every year of 
exact data upon which to base a Report as to the condition of the seal-life as com- 
pared with the year or years previous. In this way my record of the precise area 
and position of the fur-seal breeding grounds on St. Paul's Island in the season of 
1872,-and that of St. George in the season of 1873, correctly serves as a definite 
basis for all time to come upon which to found authoritative Reports from year to 
year as to any change, increase, or diminution of the seal life. It is, therefore, 
very important that the Government should have an Agent in charge of these novel 
and valuable interests, who is capable, by virtue of edueation and energy, to cor- 
rectly observe and report the area and position of the rookeries year by year.” 
Therefore, in the light of the foregoing you will observe that, although I was 
unable to detect myself any danger to or diminution of the seal life on the “Priby loff 
Islands after three seasons of close study in the field, ending with the season of 1874, 
yet I was deeply impressed with the need of an intelligent ‘careful search every year 
for the signs of or real existence of such danger, that I urged the Department to 
select men who were fit to make such a search, and who could be trusted to do it 
honestly and thoroughly. I made this request on the 16th November, 1874, as I gave 
in my detailed Report above cited to the Secretary of the Treasury, who ordered it 
to be published at once, and caused it to be widely circulated by the Department. 
Tn 1872-74, I observed that all the young male seals needed for the annual quota 
of 75,000, or 90, 000 as it was ordered in the latter year, were easily obtained ever y 
Beason, between the lst June and the 20th July following, from the ‘ hauling grounds ” 
*A Repent upon the Condition of Affairs in the Territory of Alaska, by Henry w. 
Elliott, Special Agent, Treasury Department. Government Printing Office, 1875. 
(Pp. 277-80.) 
