370 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



and to provide for the execution of the provisions" of the statute for the puuishnieut 

 of the persons killiupf the same. (Vol. 15, U. S. Stat., p. 241.) 



On the 3(1 March, ld69, by a joint resolution entitled "A resolution more efficiently 

 to protect the fur seal in Alaska," the islands of St. Paul and St. George were " de- 

 clared a special reservation for Government purposes," and it was further declared 

 to be unlawful for any person to land or remain on either of those islands, except by 

 the authority of the Secretary of the Treasury. (Vol. 15, U. S. Stat., p. 348.) On July 

 1, 1870, Congress passed the further act "to prevent the extermination of fur-bear- 

 ing animals in Alaska." (Vol. 16, tj. S. Stat., p. 180.) This is limited to the islands 

 of St. Paul and St. George and "the waters adjacent thereto." The eifective means 

 of this policy, as determined by this act, was the leasing of the islands upon the terms 

 and conditions and under the restrictions prescribed in the act. We thus see that 

 the great object and purpose of Congress and its established policy were the preser- 

 vation of the fur seal. 



In examining into the operations of this company it would therefore seem of pri- 

 mary importance to ascertain how far this established policy of the Government — 

 this paramount and leading intent of Congress— has been maintained by the com- 

 pany. 



Upon this topic the report of Governor Swineford affords no light, though he is 

 pronounced against the wisdom of the act of Congress in adopting the leasing sys- 

 tem as acmeaus "necessary to the preservation of the fur-seal industry." 



As for the scheme proposed by* him as a substitute, we beg leave* to make some 

 suggestions at a later period in this paper, but it may be well now to state that so 

 for the policy of the Government in leasing the island's as a means of preserving the 

 fur seal from diminution and extermination has been most triumphantly vindicated. 



Mr. Elliott, before referred to, gave this subject his special attention under most fa- 

 vorable circumstances. He was, to use his own language, "by the joint action of 

 Professor Baird and the Secretary of the T'reasury, enabled to visit the Pribylov 

 Mauds for the purpose of studying the life and habits of these animals." His ' ' notes, 

 surveys, and hypotheses were" founded upon his own personal observations in the seal 

 rookeries of St. Paul and St. George, during the seasons of 1872 to 1874, inclusive, 

 supplemented by his confirmatory insi^ection made in 1876. They were obtained 

 through long days and nights of consecutive observation, from the beginning to the 

 close of each seal season, and cover, by actual surveys, the entire ground occupied 

 by these animals." Nothing could have been more searching, thorough, and efficient. 

 His views have been confirmed by the numerous agents of the Treasury Department 

 sent to Alaska, and have been acted upon by the Government generally, if not uni- 

 versally. He states that : 



"Provided matters are conducted on the seal islands in the future as they are to-day, 

 100,OuO male seals under the age of five years and over one may be safely taken every 

 year from the Pribylov Islands, without the slightest injury to "the regular birth rates, 

 or natural increase thereon; provided, also, that the fur seals are not visited by any 

 plague or pests, or any abnormal cause for their destruction, which might be beyond 

 the control of men ; and to which, like any other great body of animal life, they might 

 ever be subjected to the danger of * * * That these animals are preyed 

 upon extensively by killer-whales {orca gladiator) in especial, and by sharks, and 

 probably other submarine foes now unknown, is at once evident; for were they not 

 held in check by some such cause they would, as they exist to-day on St. Paul, 

 quickly multiply, by arithmetical progression, to so great an extent that the island, 

 nay, Bering Sea itself, could not contain them. The present annual killing of 100,000 

 out of a yearly total of over a million males does not in anappreciable degree dimin- 

 ish the seal life, or interfere in the slightest with its regular, sure perpetuation on 

 the breeding-grounds every year. We may, therefore, j^roperly look upon this aggre- 

 gate of four and five millions of fur-seals as we see them every season on these Priby- 

 lov Islands as the maximum limit of increase assigned to them by natural laws. The 

 great equilibrium which nature holds in life upon this earth must be sustained at 

 St. Paul as well as elsewhere." (Elliott's report, pp. 62, 64.) 



When before the Committee of Ways and Means on the 17th of March, 1876, on the 

 investigation before alluded to, Mr. Elliott made a similar statement, giving in some- 

 what greater detail the reasons for his conclusions. His evidence will be found an- 

 nexed to the report of the committee. (Report No. 623, H. R., Forty-fourth Congress, 

 first session. ) 



Capt. Charles Bryant was also called before that committee on the 20th March, 

 1876. He was then the Treasury agent stationed on the Island of St. Paul. He went 

 there first in 1869 and remained there from that date, " every successive season of the 

 sealing," to 1876, when he gave his evidence to the committee, and it will likewise be 

 found annexed to its report. He fully confirms the views of Mr. Elliott. 



In support of the same conclusion will be found the report of Lieut. Washburn 

 Maynard, U. S. Navy, made to the Secretary of the Navy on the 30th November, 

 1874. His investigation was made pursuant to the act of Congress of April 22, 1874, 



