90 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



iustauce. Last fall a schooDer landed at one of the rookeries and killed 

 seventeen cows and bulls right on the breeding rookery near the water, 

 within 15 feet of the edge of the water. They clubbed the seals and scat- 

 tered the brains on the rocks, and a spot was soiled probably as large as 

 this room. The next year early in May this very spot in the thickest part 

 of the breeding rookery that had been soiled was totally bare. It was 

 as bare as this floor. The seal would come and crowd up to the margin 

 of this spot, but would not haul there, and did not until the next year, 

 when the weather and action of the elements had totally obliterated all 

 traces of it, Now, if a bull comes up and smells and discovers anything of 

 that sort — and that lasted through a long winter — they leave that spot 

 and haul in some other place, and if a whole rookery was so soiled, there 

 would be no seal to haul there. 



Mr. Taylor. Mr. Morgan, is it not true that when the company ren- 

 dered seal oil on the island that it drove the seal from the rookery, 

 which was not very far distant 1 



Mr. Morgan. That was when they were rendering oil by bjiirning the 

 blubber in trying pots set up there, and the smoke from the furnaces 

 drifted off across the water and the wind blew it on the lookery so that 

 it disturbed the seal when the wind was from that direction. When 

 the Russians were on those islands, they had regiilations which prohib- 

 ited the building of fires for cooking purposes at certain points when 

 the wind was. in a direction to drive the smoke of the burning blubber 

 on the rookeries. 



Mr. Taylor. I only spoke of those things to show how sensitive the 

 seal was to anything and everything. 



The Witness. I am glad yon give me an opportunity to state some- 

 thing in that direction. The lease of these islands provided that the 

 comi>auy should be permitted to take so man}- skins and pay so much, 

 and to have the privilege of taking so much seal oil 0]i which a tax was 

 due for each gallon taken ; but it is charged that they did not take the 

 oil, and therefore that valuable product that ought to inure to the Gov- 

 ernment was lost. The explanation the gentleman has made covers the 

 whole ground. The company made an effort to take the oil, but the 

 only way was to use the blubber of the animal for fuel, and it was found 

 offensive to the seal and that it was imperiling the rookery in spots and 

 places and the company therefore s<<f represented to the Department 

 and they excused them from taking any of the oil. This omission to 

 take oil was for the general good of the rookery and not on the part of 

 the company to avoid any obligation. 



Mr. Jeffries. On that point, an inspection of the contract shows you 

 were not obliged to take any seal oil. 



The Witness. We had to pay the tax on what we did take; and 

 after we had done it we found the market price for seal-oil did not jus- 

 tify it, and as we were not obliged to do it, we did not take it. 



The Chairman. That is the ground upon which the Secretary changed 

 the regulation and rules, and released the company from the oil-tax? 



The W^itness. Yes, sir. 



By Mr. Jeffries: 



Q. What relation do you bear to the Alaska Commercial Company ? — 

 A. I am a trustee, a direclor of the comi)any. 



Q. Are you a share-holder? — A. Yes, sir. '^ 



Q. Are any of the share-holders oftlie Alaska Commercial Company 

 foreigners ? Is not the stock all held by citizens of the United States f— 

 A. Entirely. The lease would be forfeited if there were foreigners in- 

 terested in any way, directly or indirectly. 



