REPLY TO MR. BARRETT-HAMILTON. 185 



overwhelming portion of the 7,684 skins, viz, 6,605, were taken by British schooners, 

 and that it has not been possible to get from the proper authorities any extracts of 

 the logs of these schooners. Let it next be remembered what I actually wrote (p. 

 128) : " It has been long known that seals occurred in summer in the waters north- 

 west of Bering Island, from Cape Kamchatka to Karagiiiski Island, but it seems as if 

 jn 1895 the sealers repaired there systematically and with success. I am indebted to 

 Mr. 0. H. Townsend for this information and for the following abstracts of the logs 

 of the schooners Ida Etta, and Jane OreyP Not another word did I say; yet Barrett- 

 Hamilton " can make out" that I can only state that of 7,684 seals 245 were killed on 

 the feeding grounds of North Eookery, by which casuistry he makes it appear that out 

 of 7,684 only 245 were actually taken there! Had he examined the British logs, 

 which he could have access to, while they were closed to me, he would have found 

 the exact number. But this is not the worst : " In the logs of the other schooners, 

 as given by Dr. Stejneger, I can see no entry ' that any seals had been caught north 

 of the islands." Everybody must think, of course, that I have given more logs 

 from 1895 than the two just quoted (not to say all, as his words really imply), 

 but, as a matter of fact, I have' not. All the other logs given by me are from 1892! 

 And as if that were not enough, two of these other logs actually have entries show- 

 ing over 200 seals to have been " caught north of the islands," not in 1895, it is true, 

 but in 1892! 



I think I have proven pretty conclusively that so far as the mortality of the 

 pups on Bering Island in 1895 is concerned I am not the one who is reduced ad 

 absurdum. 



The facts are, as I have stated, that in 1895, for the first time, the Bering Island 

 feeding grounds were invaded by the pelagic sealers systematically and with success. 

 When the British logs shall have become published, it will be found that a large 

 number of seals were taken in 1895 to the north of Bering Island on a scale quite 

 commensurate with the number of starving pups on the North Eookery. 



There is only one more point to refer to, viz, Barrett-Hamilton's remark in 

 sequence of the above to the following eifect (p. 41). "Nor does Dr. Stejneger's 

 supposition explain the fact that a very similar mortality was noticed by Mr. Yenning 

 in 1893, in which year, he (Stejneger) states, ' the extension of the hunt to the Bering 

 Island feeding grounds' (p. 135) had not taken place." Again a casuistic quotation ot 

 my words, which simply mentioned "the extension of the hunt to the Bering Island 

 feeding grounds" without in the least stating that no hunt took place there in 1893. 

 Barrett-Hamilton's version leaves the impression as if T had even denied that any 

 seals had ever been taken north of Bering Island prior to 1895, while all I have 

 asserted was that in the latter year the hunt for the first time was made systematically 

 and with success. As a matter of fact, on the first map of my book, as well as on page 

 87 have I shown that seals were taken to the northward of Bering Island as early as 

 1892. With the few logs at my disposal, viz, 9 out of 40, showing more than 200 

 seals caught, it is safe to say that the actual total was'much larger, and there is no 

 doubt that, in 1893, there were killed on the Bering Island feeding grounds more than 

 'enough to account for the 150 starved pups found by Mr. Venning in that year on 

 North Eookery. 



1 Italicized by me. L. S. 



