174 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



Q. Have you read that letter? — A. I read this synopsis of it. 



Q. Do you concur in the statements made by Mr. Seeber, or do you 

 know anything about it? — A. I know tliat the matters about which lie 

 speaks in that dispatch are not true. The statements are not true. I 

 think that Mr. Seeber ought to be the last man Hving to bring any ac- 

 cusation against tliis company. 



Q. Have you any reason for that opinion ?— A. Yes, sir. 



By Mr. Felton : 



Q. Of course you have some reasons. Htive you any objections to 

 giving us those reasons ? — A. I do not know that I have, because right 

 wrongs no man. This gentleman was commissioner up there, which 

 office corresponds to that of justice of the peace in the States, and his 

 salary was $1,000. He was there several years; I do not know how 

 long; two or three years, probably. He not only spent his sahiry (at 

 a i)lace where a man can not legitimately si)end any more than it costs 

 for board and clothing), while he kept drawing upon tliis company until 

 he owed it some $1,700, when they shut down on him and would not 

 give hiui any more, and he left the country. At the time he left he 

 owed the company some $1,700. When he landed in Sau Francisco he 

 didn't promise to i)ay them, and did not go to their office even. He 

 sent a boy up to the office, and ordered them to forward his mail to some 

 other point for him. This is all they ever got for their $1,700. 



Q. Probably it the company had expended a little more on him we 

 would not have gotten this 'I — A. Probably not. 1 was very much as- 

 tonished on reading that dispatch, because the matters of which he 

 speaks are all untrue. His statements are absolutely false. 



I will submit as part of my testimony the following extract from my 

 report of 1886: 



IHK BKEEDIXG KOOKERIES. 



Mr. Elliott embraced in his report of 1874 a measurement by Lim of the breeding 

 rookeries on this island made July 10 to 18, l87iJ, since which time no measurement 

 has been made so far as the records of this office show. Deeming it of great imi)ortance 

 that the Department should be in possession of the best information as to I he present 

 condition of the rookeries, I made a thorough measurement of all on this island, com- 

 mencing on the 3d day of May, before the bulls hauled up on the land, when an abso- 

 lutely correct measurement could be made. 



lu making my measurements I was assisted by Dr. L. A. Noyes (Captain Loud, as- 

 sistant Treasury agent, not having returned to'the islands), and four of the best in- 

 formed natives. As to the boundaries of the breeding rookeries in July, when the 

 rookeries were fullest, we veritied our work by observation, and found the ground 

 included within our lines fullj^ covered some of the rookeries, viz. Northeast Point, 

 Tolstoi Gerbutch Polivena, were densely packed, covering more area than my state- 

 ment shows, while others were not so closely ])acked. I do not agree with Mr. Elliott 

 in his assignment of '2 feet square to each seal; at this date it is not enough, 



1 inclose my statement, marked E, as compared with Mr. Elliott's, which on his basis 

 gives us now on the breeding rookeries .5,148,500 seals, an increase since 1872 of 

 2,VM,bi)0. I think the calculation of 1872, as well as 1886, would stand a reduction 

 of one-fourth in aggregate number of seals, and be nearer the true number than our 

 figures show. Statements at best are merely approximate estimates, but in the ab- 

 sence of any absolutely correct method of arriving at the count they serve as a guide. 

 Frequent inspection of the rookeries during last season and this shows a decided in- 

 crease of cows, with an ample supply of bulls. The same report is also made by the 

 assistant Treasury agent in charge of St. George, on which island 1 was not able 

 to obtain measurements of the rookeries this spring, but will do so next, and forward 

 the result with my next report. 



So far this season we have sighted but one schooner off this island, supposed to be 

 sealing; she did not, however, come in close enough to disclose her real character. 



At St. George an attempt was made by a marauder to land for the purpose of 

 killing seals on a rookei-y, but were driven off by shots fired at them by order of the 

 of6cer in charge, as directed by me. 



At 1.30 p. m"., 2yth of June, the reveuue-cutter Corwin landed here. Captain Abbey 



