INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 9 



there would not be a seal there by 1907 or 1908. (See pp. 605, 606, 

 Hearing No. 10.) 



Mr. McGuire. I thought you estimated about 50,000. 



Mr. Elliott. I assumed there were that many breeding cows. 



Mr. McGuire. Did you not give that testimony ? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes; I did not know; I had to assume they were 

 there. (See pp. 1004-1012, Hearing No. 14.) 



Mr. McGuire. You took the figures of these men whose judgment 

 and knowledge you thought so little of ? 



Mr. Elliott. I had to do it. 



Mr. McGuire. For your basis in making an estimate ? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes; I had to; I could not dispute Dr. Jordan's 

 figures until I got up there this year; but I never have assumed that 

 he started right. If he started right then these other censuses, based 

 on his 



Mr. McGuire (interposing). The facts are that you did not know 

 whether his figures were right, but now you assume, because there are 

 more seals than you thought there ought to be, that he must have 

 been wrong ? 



Mr. Elliott. But I did not know exactly about it. 



Mr. McGuire. The opinion of the agents of the Government was 

 that they were increasing, but you said they were not. 



Mr. Elliott. No; they did not say they were increasing. 



Mr. McGuire. Yes; they said that they were increasing. 



Mr. Elliott. That was in 1912. 



Mr. McGuire. Well, their testimony will show. My recollection 

 is that they said they were increasing. 



Mr. Elliott. That was last year, 1912. They suddenly doubled 

 their figures of 1911 . 



Mr. McGuire. You mean by that that they said they were increas- 

 ing ? 



Mr. Elliott. But how could they be increasing when the killing 

 was kept up during 1911 ? 



Mr. McGuire. What a minute, please; that is your statement. 



Mr. Elliott. That is their statement. 



Mr. McGuire. My recollection is that you said that if their figures 

 were correct there were as many seals there as they said. 



Mr. Elliott. "Correct?" 



Mr. McGuire. That is all. 



Mr. Elliott. That is right, but their figures were not correct, 

 because there could not have been, with their census closing on the 

 1st of August, 1911, 127,745. (See p. 367, Hearing No. 9.) 



Mr. McGuire. Yes; but that is your conclusion. 



Mr. Elliott. Well, how could they 



Mr. McGuire (interposing). But as to that, all the rest differ 

 with you. 



Mr. Elliott (continuing). But how could they increase when they 

 were killing right up to the 1st of August, 1911, and the pelagic fleet 

 kept right at work until December 15th of that year? 



Mr. McGuire. But you do not know anything about that. 



Mr. Elliott. I know that they did not double, because seals do not 

 double that way, and I know something about the law of life that 

 governs their increasing and decreasing. They could not double in 

 numbers during that year ; it was a physical impossibility. 



