JOINT STATEMENT OF CONCLUSIONS. 241 
‘Islands in Bering Sea, viz, on behalf of the United States, Charles Sumner Hamlin and 
David Starr Jordan; on behalf of Great Britain, D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson; on 
behalf of Canada, James Melville Macoun, have met in conference under instructions 
from our respective Governments. Under these instructions we were directed “to 
arrive, if possible, at correct conclusious respecting the numbers, conditions, and 
habits of the seals frequenting the Pribilof Islands at the present time as compared 
with the several seasons previous and subseque:t to the Paris award.” 
As a result of such conference, now completed, we, the above-named Charles 
Sumner Hamlin, David Starr Jordan, D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson, and James 
Melville Macoun, find ourselves in accord on the propositions contained in the 
following joint statement of conclusions respecting the fur-seal herd frequenting the 
Pribilof Islands, and make this our report: 
JOINT STATEMENT. 
1. There is adequate evidence that since the year 1884, and down to the date of 
the inspection of the rookeries in 1897, the fur-seal herd of the Pribilof Islands, as 
measured on either the hauling grounds or breeding grounds, has declined in numbers 
at a rate varying from year to year. 
2. In the ‘absence for the earlier years of actual counts of the rookeries such as 
have been made in recent years, the best approximate measure of decline now 
available is found in these facts: : 
(a) About 100,006 male seals of recognized killable age were obtained from the 
hauling grounds each year from 1871 to 1889. -The table of statistics given in 
Appendix I shows, on the whole, a progressive increase in the number of hauling 
grounds driven and in the number of drives made, as well as a retardation of the date 
at which the quota was attained during a number of years previous to 1889. 
(b) In the year 1896, 28,964 killable seals were taken after continuing the driving 
till July 27, and in 1897, 19,189 after continuing the driving till August 11.1 We have 
no reason to believe that during the period 1896 and 1897 a very much larger number 
of males of recognized killable age could have been taken on the hauling grounds. 
The reduction between the years 1896 and 1897 in the number of killable seals 
taken, while an indication of decrease in the breeding herd, can not be taken as an 
actual measure of such decrease. A number of other factors must be taken into 
consideration, and the real measure of decrease must be sought in more pertinent 
statistics drawn from the breeding rookeries themselves. 
3. From these data it is plain that the former yield of the hauling grounds of the 
Pribilof Islands was from three to five times as great as in the years 1896 and 1897, 
and the same diminution to one-third or one-fifth of the former product may be 
assumed when we include also the results of huuting at sea. 
4, The death rate amouig the young fur seals, especially among the pups, is very 
great. While the loss among the pups prior to their departure from the islands has 
been found in the last two years to approach 20 per cent of the whole number born, 
and though the rate of subsequent mortality is unknown, we may gather from the 
!'The nominal quota of 30,000 for 1896 and of 20,890 for 1897 included food skins taken in the fall 
of 1895 and 1896. (These figures, 28,964 and 19,189, are slightly in error and shouid read respectively 
28,365 and. 18,961.) : 
15184-—_16 
