FUR SEALS OF ALASKA. 41 
Treasury Department and myself wrote a letter to the Treasury De- 
partment to the effect that if our Government would use machinery it 
has at hand, such as I have suggested, the seal herd would be saved 
from destruction. 
Mr. DatzeLy. What proportion of pelagic sealing do you say is 
done within our jurisdictional limits, and not on the high seas? 
Mr. Ivey. I say from 75 to 80 per cent of it. If this pelagic seal- 
ing is stopped I am satisfied seal poaching will all stop, as it would not 
pay them to continue in the business. 
I wish to repeat that I do not think that trouble is on account of 
the land killing by the seal company. As long as a sufficient number 
of male seal are retained for breeding purposes the land killing works 
no injury to the seal herd. The bachelors or young male seal are 
those killed for the fur, and these are never allowed by the older 
males to approach the rookeries or breeding grounds. To kill these, 
leaving enough for breeding purposes, does not injure the herd. It 
is the same as in raising cattle, the females are retained while only a 
sufficient number of males are kept for breeding purposes. 
Mr. Joseph Murray, a former Treasury agent on the seal islands, 
told me some years ago that the land killing was no injury to the herd, 
but that the whole trouble grew out of pelagic sealing, which destroyed 
both the mothers as well as the pups. I believe the suggestion made 
by Mr. Hitchcock to the Department of Commerce and Labor to be a 
good one, that no seal be killed under two years of age by the seal 
company. 
The whole question resolves itself into the prevention of pelagic 
sealing by Canadians and others engaged in that business, and if the 
committee will let this question alone, except to have the Department 
of Commerce and Labor make an order that no seal be killed under 
2 years of age and order the revenue cutters to go up there and do 
their duty for the protection of this industry, you will have no further 
trouble with this question. 
The Cuatrman. I hope you will go to the Department of Commerce 
_and Labor and make this statement to them. 
Mr. Ivey. I will be pleased to do so. 
The Cuarrman. It is a new statement to this committee and we are 
very glad to get the information. Is there any gentleman here who 
wishes to be heard in opposition to this? If not, we will hear anyone 
in favor of it. I suppose Mr. Elliott would be glad to be heard. 
ADDITIONAL STATEMENT OF MR. H. W. ELLIOTT. 
(See p. 1.) 
Mr. Exrrorr. Mr. Chairman, I want to speak in brief reply to cer- 
tain criticisms of Senator Faulkner, who, in behalf of the lessees, has 
just made assertions touching the character of my work on the seal 
islands in 1872-1874 and in 1890; also to ask some questions of the 
representative of the Department of Commerce and Labor. 
The Cuarrman. You may ask him some questions if you desire. 
Mr. Exxiorr. I have heard to-day, here, for the first time, from 
the Department of Commerce and Labor on the point of what it will 
do to restrict the land killing. Ihave enjoyed the confidence of the 
gentleman who has just spoken here, for the Department, and we 
have always interchanged views without hesitation. 
