108 
has authorized others to act with these, on 
their own account. Some of the latter 
at least are men who love to slaughter for 
the mere sake of it, and who have no re- 
gard for the beauties of nature. 
From the reports referred to it seems 
that several hundred of these seals and 
sea lions have already been killed, and un- 
less prompt and vigorous action is taken 
the herds will be practically exterminated 
about San Francisco within a few days. 
I beg you to telegraph your representa- 
tive there to stop the killing, at least tem- 
porarily, until the matter can be proper- 
ly investigated and considered. 
I should be glad to be advised of your 
action in the matter. 
Then came this good news: 
Your letter of May 27th, to the Honor- 
able, the Secretary of the Treasury, rel- 
ative to the alleged proposed killing of 
seals and sea lions on the California coast, 
has been referred to this office. 
The Lighthouse Board on April 27, ’99, 
at the instance of the Board of Fish Com- 
missioners of the State of California, au- 
thorized the Inspector of the 12th Light- 
house District to permit the California 
Fish Commission to send deputies to cer- 
tain lighthouse reservations, under such 
rules and regulations as he might estab- 
lish, for the purpose of thinning the herds 
of sea lions which congregate there. . 
In view, however, of your protest, and 
of certain others, the board has tele- 
graphed the Lighthouse Inspector at San 
Francisco suspending the permission 
granted in its letter of April 27, ’99, until 
further orders. . . 
The matter will be further considered 
by the board at its quarterly. meetin: 
which will take place next Monday. 
Respectfully yours, 
Thomas Perry, 
Commander, U. S. N., Naval Secretary. 
I at once wrote Doctor Evermann urg- 
ing him to attend the meeting of the 
Lighthouse Board, with as many other 
heads of Government departments as he 
could induce to aid him, and to seek a 
hearing on the question. 
I also wrote Dr. David S. Jordan, Pres- 
ident of Leland Stanford University, ask- 
ing him to aid us in saving the seals, and 
this is his answer: 
I am sure it is not the intention of the 
Fish Commission to exterminate the sea 
lion or to go anywhere near exterminat- 
ing it. Since they gave up killing them 
at the Farallones a long time ago, they 
have greatly increased. Those who have 
recently made an attempt to count them, 
estimate between 3,000 and 6,000 of the 
animals on the breeding rookeries of the 
dent of the California Fish 
RECKEATITON, 
Farallones. I have consented to the idea 
that the interests of those who love these 
great and picturesque animals, would not 
be materially interfered with if half of 
them were killed off; but I have strongly 
protested against the extermination or 
even reduction of the herd of the great sea 
lion, Eumetopias. I do” not” think® any, 
real attack will+.e made on this animal. It 
is the little, black, barking sea lion, Zalo- 
phus, that is doing the mischief. It enters 
the Sacramento river and other streams 
about San Francisco bay, and is a shrewd 
fisherman, getting into the nets, catching 
the fish there and destroying the nets. The 
animals on the seal rookeries at San Fran- 
cisco will not be disturbed, but as a mat- 
ter of fact they are only the superfluous 
males from the Farallones and their fate 
is involved in that of the others. I have 
strongly urged that in the work of killing 
the stomachs be examined in order to as- 
certain the kind and quantity of food they 
take. As a matter of fact we do not know 
whether the destruction wrought by the 
sea lion in the Sacramento river is to be 
measured by the thousands or millions of 
dollars. 
I have the most profound respect for 
the opinions of Dr. Jordan and am glad to 
find he does not concur in the plan’ of 
the (Caltiogniay “isi (Conunission tomes 
wholesale destruction of the seals and sea 
lions, but agrees only to a moderate re- 
duction of the herd. 
Meantime Mr. A. T. Vogelsang, Presi- 
Commission, 
writes me in part as follows: 
The California Fish Commission has un- 
dertaken the reduction of the sea lion herd 
contiguous to the Bay of San Francisco. 
The proposed action has been de- 
termined upon only after full, mature and 
public consideration of the subject. 
After a full discussion -of the subject, it 
was determined. without a dissenting vote, 
that it was a duty our Fish Commissioners 
owed to the taxpayers of the state that 
the sea lion herd be reduced. We, there- 
upon, resolved to do so, and we propose 
to carry out that resolution. 
We did not go ahead until we knew we 
were right. Now, knowing we are right, 
we are determined to go ahead. 
I confess to a feeling of some impatience 
on this proposition for we have received 2 
communications other than yours, and like 
yours, we have no doubt they were written 
without a full understanding of the subject. 
And this also: 
Washington, D. C., June 3, I89Q9. 
Dear Mr. Shields. 
The game to slaughter the sea lions on 

