176 THE ASIATIC FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 



Another instance of misquoting my words relates to the question of the mortality 

 of the pups, and will be treated in connection with that matter.' 



Has Overkilling of Males on Land Contributed to the Decline op the Breeding Herd 



ON THE Commander Islands. 



Mr. Barrett-Hamilton having resuscitated, at least in part, the theory that the 

 present deplorable condition of the seal herd is due to overkilling of the immature 

 male seals on land, it becomes necessary to examine into the reasons submitted by 

 him for such an opinion. These reasons may be summed up briefly as follows : (1) lUe 

 scarcity of bulls on Bering Island; (2) the practical absence of yearlings in 1895; 

 (3) the alleged decrease of bachelors before 1892. 



Scarcity of bulls on Bering Island. — It is first to be remembered that I have 

 always spoken of the scarcity of bulls on North Eookery, Bering Island, as compared 

 with the superabundance of bulls on Copper Island, and that I have never asserted 

 that there were too lew bulls. Of course, people who believed that an average of 

 over 25 or 30 females to a bull is too great would naturally come to the conclusion that 

 a dangerous condition existed on Bering Island. Now, when we know that each bull 

 is able to fertilize an average of considerably over 100 females, there can be no further 

 ground for apprehension or for a belief that the decrease of the seals on North Eookery 

 is in any way due to a lack of sufQuient male element. 



Yet this relative scarcity of bulls had furnished Mr. Barrett-Hamilton with a 

 double edged argument for the opinion that "overkilling" is at the bottom of the evil. 

 According to him this lack of bulls in 1895, in the first place, is due to the killing of 

 bachelors in former years to such an extent that none, or hardly any, escaped to grow 

 up to maturity,^ consequently "overkilling" is the cause of the decrease of the bulls. 

 In the second place, this scarcity of bulls again resulted in nonfertilization of a great 

 many females, consequently a low birth rate and decrease of the younger classes, more 

 especially the yearlings in 1895. But he never attempts to explain the comparative 

 abundance of the older bachelors on this rookery, viz, those in age next to the bulls, 

 those furnishing the heavy skins in 1895. Wbere did they come from, in all this 

 decrease of both their juniors and their seniors due to ovei killing? This question he 

 avoids, though he knows well enough that if cTverkilling ever took place it acted, 

 tliroughout all the years when these classes were born. 



His explanation of the alleged decrease of the junior grades, particularly the 

 yearlings in 1895, will be treated of in a separate chapter. Let us here look into the 

 claim that the scarcity of the old bulls, whether injurious or not, is due to overkilling. 



'The followiug point is not very material, but it illustrates a general lack of scrupulous care in 

 quoting. On page 12 Mr. Barrett-Hamilton says: "He (Stejneger) thinks (pp. 38 and t9) that in 

 Steller's time either there were no seals at the North Rookery or that if there were Steller never visited 

 that part of the island." This is a monstrous distortion of what I have said in my book, and also of 

 what I think! On the contrary, I have said (p. 38) that Steller's omission of mentioning the North 

 Rookery is corroborative evidence that he never visited personally that part of the island, or that if 

 he did he traveled there when the island was covered with ice aud snow, at which time, of course, 

 there was uo evidence of a seal rookery. I have never for a moment entertained such an extraordinary 

 thought that "in Steller's time there were no seals at the North Rookery." 



^ Yet, as wi! shall see further on, he uses as an argument in another case the fact that the rookery 

 was never scraped so clear of bachelors as it was in 1895. 



