40 INVESTIGATION OP THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



And these bulls which we see alive on the breeding grounds now, and will continue 

 to observe until 1907. are the survivors of the young male 2, 3, and 4 year olds which 

 were saved in 1890, 1891, 1892, and 1893, plus a few 3 and 4 year olds which may have 

 slipped through in 1894 and 1895. 



Since 1896 no fresh young male blood has been permitted to pass the club on the 

 killing grounds of St. Paul and St. George, and the effect of utterly shutting off the 

 birth rate by 1906 and 1907 is plainly exhibited in the analysis tabluated above. 



In the light of the foregoing statements of fact, am I not warranted in asking that 

 you at once suspend all killing on the islands by the lessees for the seasons of 1904, 

 1905, and 1906; and that only such young males as may be necessary for natives' food 

 be killed thereon during those seasons, solely under the direction of your agents, the 

 skins of which can be carefully preserved and sold by the Government — the proceeds 

 thereof turned into the Public Treasury? 



You can not divide the authority for killing on the islands in the present condition 

 of affairs between your agents and the agents of the lessees, without scandal, confusion, 

 and failure. 



You have full and ample power to suspend all killing of seals by the lessees under 

 the distinct terms of their lease, whenever the preservation of that life is at stake, 

 and which you are especially charged by Congress to preserve; the lessees have no 

 recourse on the Government, under existing condition*, if you suspend their opera- 

 tions indefinitely, by the express terms of this lease, and which was drawn by Mr. 

 Windom in March. i890. for the very purpose of meeting just such a contingency as 

 now arises. I know it. because I was consulted by him when he was drafting it. 



Again, the lessees have no ground of complaint, legally or morally, if you entirely 

 suspend their work; they have made an enormous profi! annually since 1890, even 

 through the short-killing of the modus vivendi in 1891-1893. The entire amount of 

 their capital invested in the plant on these islands is only S67.000. 



I have detailed figures which declare their annual profits since 1900 to have been 

 simply enormous from a commercial standpoint; the fur trade has recognized the fact 

 that the end of supply from the seal islands is near at hand: and since 1897 a steady 

 immense rise in price per skin, no matter how small, has taken place up to date, making 

 the profil on the island catches and the pelagic catches way beyond the figures of 

 greatesl values ever known to the bu :00. 



This step which I ask you to take is provided for by existing law; there are other 

 steps which 1 think y I to take, bul which you can not take until Congress 

 acts; of them and about them I desire very much ! r personally with you. 



I am, very respectfully, 



Your friend and servant. Eenry W. Elliott, 



\"!i".. Washington, D. C. 



This statement, as above, stirred Mr. F. H. Hitchcock, who, as 

 chief clerk of the department, had the entire administrative details 

 of this business in his hands. He issued those checks upon that 

 work of the lessees which Mr. Elliott called for on May 1, 1904, and 

 which are now so well and favorably known to the committee as the 

 Hitchcock rules. 



These were enforced fairly well in 1004 and in 1905, but after that 

 the greedy lessees prevailed upon the agents so that the "saved" 

 seals in June and July were all secured as "food seals" during the 

 same season in October and November following. So thorough was 

 this nullification of the Hitchcock rules brought about since 1906 

 that to-day the most careful survey between July 10-20 last failed 

 to d sclose the presence of a single "idle" able-bodied fur-seal bull 

 on many of the 17 desolated breeding grounds of the fur-seal herd 

 on the Pribilof Islands. 



The absolute necessity of letting this young male life rest from 

 "scientific" disturbance,' such as the driving of the pups to "count" 

 them, and from the senseless slaughter of all the "yearlings" with 

 the 2, 3, and 4 year old males during the next five years is way 

 beyond any sensible objection or even argument to the contrary. 



The proof conclusive of that erroneous census of Dr. Jordan's com- 

 mission in 1896, when he declared that a "true count" such as he 

 had made then showed the presence of only 440.000 seals on the 



