64 FUR SEALS OF ALASKA. 
-in so far as they have been improved, this means that land killing is not and has not 
been a factor in the decline of the herd.” 
The Russian records show that from 1817 down to 1834 the supply of choice young 
male seals was constantly growing less and less as each year followed the other; they 
show that no such method of killing these seals at sea, now so well known to us as 
‘pelagic sealing,’’? was known to white men or practiced by them, or by the Alaskan 
natives, during the entire period of Russian ownership and control, ending in 1867;, 
they show that this remarkable shrinkage of the herd from 1817 down to 1834 was 
due entirely to overdriving and culling of young male seals; they show that fourteen 
years before the utter collapse of the herd took place this result of ruin was announced 
by an official investigator, who urged, in 1820, that steps be taken then to avert the dis- 
aster, and they show that in spite of this clear note of warning and remonstrance the 
greed and the avarice of a Russian board of directors overruled Yanovsky’s appeal; 
then they show that the end was reached in 1834, justas he had predicted under date 
of February 25, 1820, saying: 
* * * “that every year the young bachelor seals are killed, and that only the 
cows, ‘seecatchie’ and ‘polseecatchie’ are left to propagate the species. It follows 
that only the old seals are left, while if any of the bachelors are left alive in the 
autumn they are sure to be killed 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.” * * * 
Then he asks that the killing be blend altogether in 1821; and then, when 
resumed in 1822, that only 40,000 be killed, etc. (Proc. Tribunal of Arbitration 
Bering Sea, vol. 8, pp. 323-325, No. 6, 1893.) 
To this warning and remonstrance against overdriving and killing young male seals 
on the Pribilof Islands in 1820 the Russian board of directors from St. Petersburg, 
under date of March 15, 1821, made the following reply and denial: ‘‘That although 
they concur in Mr. Yanorsky’s view they have decided not to adopt the measures 
proposed by him,’’ ete. 
What was the result? 
The entire disappearance of the killable young male life occurred on the islands 
in 1834. Then came the long rest of ten years on these rookeries before killing to 
any noteworthy extent of young males was or could be resumed. 
In 1834 the Russian records show that just 100 ‘‘halluschickie’’ were taken—all 
that could be secured on St. Paul Island ‘‘safely’’—‘‘leaving in 1835 for breeding 
8,118 fresh young seals, males and females together.’’ (Veniaminov: Zapieskie, etc., 
Vol. IT, p. 568 et seq., 1842. ) 
Here is the authentic record made by an unusually intelligent and personally well- 
informed man, written in 1837, that less than 9,000 seals that were ‘‘fresh and 
young’’ were left alive on St. Paul Island in 1835—reduced to this feeble remnant 
entirely by excessive killing on the island of young male seals; yet we have had two 
commissions of our ‘‘experts’’ and scientists visit those rookeries, in 1891 and in 
1896-97, only to return and stupidly deny this record, and charge every harm to that 
herd upon the pelagic sealer and his work since 1886. 
Bishop Veniaminov’s count of 8,118 seals left on the St. Paul grounds in 1835 was 
an authentic one, made by the ‘‘ Bidarshik’’ Kazean Shaieshnikov, who was the head- 
man and in charge of the island; he also was the man who entertained Yanovsky 
in 1819 during the whole of that season, while his investigation was being made 
then, and which resulted in Yanovsky’s warning report, which is quoted above. 
This unquestioned record of the Russians is of the greatest interest to us at this 
hour, because it shows the recuperative powers of the fur-seal herd. Here in 1835 
we have but 8,118 young seals left out of millions that existed on the same ground 
in 1790-1800. In 1857 the Russian records declare that this remnant of 1835 had so 
multiplied that it overflowed on the breeding grounds way up to and even beyond 
the utmost limit it had ever occupied in the days of its finest form and number when 
first discovered by man; and that no further concern as to the number taken annually 
need bother the board of directors. 
The gentlemen of this committee will, in the light of that record, easily understand 
how safe it is for us to put the pelagic sealer out of business by killing off these 
100,000 female seals now existing down to a residuum of 10,000 or 15,000, and then 
still have in reserve sufficient power to restore the herd, ample in every respect. 
The Russian record of diminution to the point of complete collapse begins in 1817, 
and is given to us by Bishop Veniaminov, who himself spent the season of 1825 on 
the islands, and who had free access to all the records of the Russian-American Com- 
any. He closed this record in 1887 and its continuation, quoted below, is taken 
rom the record made by Kazean Shaiesnikov, who lived on St. Paul Island during 
the time covered by it. 
