62 INVESTIGATION OF THE PUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



is clearly shown up there by the fact that 190,555 seals were found 

 alive in 1913, when, during all that period between — 16 years — it 

 has suffered an annual average loss of 80,000 seals, there must have 

 been at least 1,000,000 seals alive in 1896-97. 



The cause of the decline of the herd is found in the development of a rival form of 

 sealing, now known. as pelagic sealing, taking advantage of the migration journeys and 

 distant feeding habits of the seals (p. 3). 



The chief " cause of the decline" is due to the illegal and injurious 

 killing of all the young male seals that the lessees could secure annu- 

 ally from 1883 to 1913, inclusive, and continued during 1910, to its 

 merciful prohibition, August 24, 1912. (See Exhibits A antea and 

 B postea.) 



The evil effects of pelagic sealing were early recognized and efforts made to stay the 

 development of the industry. The United States sought through arbitration with 

 Great Britain to establish jurisdictional rights in Bering Sea for the protection of the 

 herd, and, failing in this, by joint regulations formulated by the Paris Tribunal of Arbi- 

 tration in 1893 attempted to restrict and limit the pelagic hunting. The regulations 

 failed of their object because of the long period of gestation and the distant feeding 

 and migration journeys of the animals. A joint commission of inquiry, including 

 British as well as American scientists, after two seasons of thorough investigation, 

 reached the agreement that the herd's decline was due solely to the killing of females 

 involved in pelagic sealing and foreshadowed the abolition of pelagic sealing as the 

 only remedy. Incidentally, this commission exonerated the Operations of land seal- 

 ing, which had been accused in 1890 of being concerned in the herd's misfortune, from 

 responsibility for it (p. 4). 



That "joint commission of inquiry, including British as well as 

 American scientists," did not "reach the agreement that the herd's 

 decline was due solely to the killing of females involved in pelagic 

 sealing," and it did not even hint at an "agreement" which fore- 

 shadowed the abolition of pelagic sealing. This is a falsehood, and 

 utterly inexcusable in its relation here, with its bald, self-confession 

 as such, in that "joint agreement" signed up by Jordan with his 

 British associates in the Department of State, November 16, 1897. 



After long-continued effort, on July 7, 1911, the United States obtained the coopera- 

 tion of Great Britain, Russia, and Japan in a treaty abolishing pelagic sealing for 15 

 years. In this treaty the United States and Russia, as owners of the principal fur-seal 

 herds, agreed to pay to Great Britain and Japan 15 per cent each of the product of 

 then land sealing operations. This treaty went into effect with the season of 1912, 

 and as a result of its beneficent action it is estimated that 15,000 breeding female fur 

 seals reached the rookeries of the Pribilof Islands and brought forth their young in 

 security, which would, under the operation of pelagic sealing, have failed to reach 

 the islands or would have been killed on later feeding excursions. This fact in itself 

 demonstrates the cause of the herd's decline and its capacity to restore itself if pro- 

 tected from further loss (p. 4). 



This is the Hay-Elliott treaty of mutual concession and joint 

 control with Great Britain, which Henry »W. Elliott drew up in 

 1904-1905, and which John Hay approved in March, 1905, and which 

 his sickness and death in July following prevented the ratification 

 of in June, 1905, at Ottawa: the lessees then came into power at 

 the State Department after Hay's death; and, with the help of Dr. 

 Jordan and his "scientists," prevented any action on it, until it was 

 forced out of the State Department by the Senate Committee on 

 Conservation of National Resources, February 4, 1911, and into the 

 Senate, February S, 1911, and then ratified there, February 15, 1911; 

 its terms being kept secret until Japan and Russia miited in them, 

 July 7, 1911. 



