FUR SEALS OF ALASKA. 73 
he ignored it. Now, these facts rise up to plague him, because there is no question 
of the sincerity and honesty of the man, at least in my opinion there is none. 
On the 20th of August, 1902, the Treasury Department gave out the following 
statement to the Associated Press: 
FOUND A NEW SEAL ROOKERY—REVENUE CUTTER MAKES AN INTERESTING DISCOVERY IN THE 
ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. 
Captain Shoemaker, of the Revenue-Cutter Service, has received a report from 
Capt. Charles H. McLelan, commanding the cutter Manning, recording the discovery 
of a new fur-seal rookery in the Aleutian Islands. 
The Manning went to the Aleutian Islands in accordance with instructions from 
Captain Shoemaker, who had received information through the natives of the exist- 
ence of a seal herd near the western end of the long chain of islands. While cruis- | 
ing among the islands early in July, as the executive officer of the Manning, 
Lieutenant Berthoff went ashore with a boat’s crew on the island of Bouldyer. 
There he found a rookery of fur seals similar to those found on the Pribilof Islands. 
Lieutenant Berthoff approached the herd closely enough to observe that none of the 
seals had been branded, and that there was no sign that white men in search of fur 
seal had ever been near the island. 
The Manning will continue searching to discover if there are other rookeries in 
that locality. The suggestion is made that these islands may be one of the rendez- 
vous of the fur seals during their absence from the Pribilof Islands. The discovery 
is considered important by the officials here in view of the gradual decline of the 
fur seal on the Pribilof Islands. 
I at once saw the error and the mischief of this official statement, and under date 
of August 20, 1902, I addressed a letter to Secretary Hay, State Department, pointing 
out the blunder, a copy of which I mailed to Secretary Shaw, of the Treasury, even 
date, from Cleveland. 
The State Department looked into the matter, and soon gave out the following 
statement: 
ALLEGED SEAL ROOKERY—THE DISCOVERY BY CAPTAIN M’LELAN DISCREDITED. 
The recent reported discovery by the captain of the revenue cutter Manning of a 
new seal rookery near Aleutian Islands has been brought to the attention of the State 
Department, where it has been immediately investigated. The report, if accurate, 
would be of the greatest importance, for it will go far toward sustaining the conten- 
tion of the Canadian seal fishers that there has not really been any diminution of fur 
seal in Alaskan waters; that there are as many fur seal as ever in the open sea, and 
that what has happened has simply been an abandonment by the fur seals of their 
old rookeries—the Pribilof Islands. 
The investigations of Henry W. Elliott, the fur-seal expert of the Government for 
many years, has lead the officials of the State Department to the conclusion that the 
report of the captain of the Manning is erroneous. The place where these seals were 
reported to have been found was on Buldir Island, more than 600 miles distant 
from the Pribilof Islands. Mr. Elliott’s conclusion is that what Captain McLellan 
of the Manning actually saw was a number of young sea lions, which he had already 
known to frequent Buldir Island and vicinity, and are easily mistaken for seals. 
But if fur seals were actually seen by the Manning’s people, then Mr. Elliott reports 
they must surely be stragglers, not trom the distant Pribilof Islands, but from the 
Russian herd, most likely from Copper Island of the Commander group, which is 
about only 200 miles distant, and is approached as close as 80 to 100 miles by the 
Russian herd on their leaving and entering the Bering Sea. Mr. Elliott further finds 
that, whereas, straggling bands of young male fur seal have been found as far dis- 
tant from Alaska as San Francisco, and on Middleton Island in the north Pacific 
’ Ocean, 200 miles west of Copper River mouth, these seal, the Pribilof seals, were 
attracted to those places by the sea lions which were breeding there at the time, 
and, no sign of a breeding rookery of Alaskan fur seals away from the Pribilof 
Islands has ever been discovered.—(Star, Washington, August 28, 1902.) 
But what did the Treasury Department do? It acknowledged the receipt of my 
letter, under date of August 23, 1902, saying my ‘‘communication of the 20tb instant, 
* * * will receive immediate attention and a full reply will be sent you at the 
earliest possible moment.’’ 
What was that reply? Nothing until I read in the report of the Secretary of the 
