46 FUR SEALS OF ALASKA. 
Mr. CiarK. What is the reason these 5 and 6 year bachelor seals 
are not good for commercial purposes? ; 
Mr. Exuiorr. Because the fur on their withers becomes patchy and 
harsh. 
Mr. McCay. Would it not be good to make a man’s overcoat out of? 
Mr. Exxiorr. No, not even good for door mats. The male skins 
are not good after the fifth year of the seal’s life. 
My. Ciarx. The period for the bulls is from three years to seven? 
Mr. Exuiorr. No; from the sixth year to the sixteenth or eight- 
eenth year, as breeders, they must get flesh and strength enough to 
fight and stay on the breeding ground from 4th of May to 1st of August 
annually, without leaving their posts for an hour in that time, either 
to eat or drink. 
Now, I want to take up another point that might as well be clearly 
understood. 
Mr. CuarK. Does it relate to this resolution? 
Mr. Exxiort. It relates to the record of land killing under the Rus- 
sian administration. I have the official records here, and I want to lay 
them before the committee. They show that when there was not even 
the thought of a pelagic hunter in the mind of anybody, much less 
the industry itself, that the Russian herd under a systematic principle 
of killing off all the choice young males every year passed from an 
immense aggregate of life in 1808 down to the point of almost total 
extermination in 1834 in these Pribilof Islands. 
Mr. Fautxner. Allow me to state that up to that period the Rus- 
sians killed both female and male, and I was not able to bring that out. 
J had the authorities and all that for it, but I shall put it in my brief. 
Mr. Exuiotr. J am glad he stated that. I do not object to the 
interruption. 
The Cuarrman. That is a fact? 
Mr. Extiott. No; it is not a fact. Ido not like to say that, but I 
have the official records here of the work. In 1819—now, this is a 
point that ought not to be lost on the committee, because it is not my 
assertion; it is a record of fact here; it isa record of excessive land 
killing, to the ruin of the herd, when there was no pelagic sealing even 
known; it is authentic and worthy of your respect; it denies what 
Doctor Jordan and his associates have said beyond all successful con- 
tradiction or sensible disputation. Let me read what the official 
examiner, sent out by the board of directors of the old Russian- 
American Company, and who reviewed the whole season’s work of 
1819 on the killing grounds of St. Paul Island, reports back to his 
company. Under date of March 15, 1891, the secretary of the Russian- 
American Company writes from St. Petersburg to Governor 
Muraivev, at Sitka, who is in charge of the entire Alaskan district, 
and in control of the seal islands, to wit: 
In his report, No. 41, of the 25th of February, 1820, Mr. Yanovsky, in giving an 
account of his inspection of the operations on the islands of St. Paul and St. George, 
observed that every year the young bachelor seals are killed and that only the cows, 
“‘sekatch,” and half ‘‘sekatch”’ are left to propagate the species. It follows that 
only the old seals are left, while if any of the bachelors remain alive in the autumn 
they are sure to be killed the next spring. The consequence is that the number of 
seals obtained diminishes every year, and it is certain that the species will in time 
become extinct. 
The Cuarrman. That would seem to indicate that the Russians killed 
all the young male seals? 
