104 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



Friday, July 3, 1896. — A seal drive was made from west side of Northeast Point 

 resulting 1,109 skins. Two "road skins" not accepted. 1 (P. 18.) 



Monday, July 6, 1896. — Seal drive made from Lukannon and Zoltoi sands, 1,535 

 seals were taken and accepted by the lessees. (P. 18.) 



Tuesday, July 7, 1896.- — A seal drive was made from Zapadnie resulting in 784 seal- 

 skins being accepted by the lessees. (P. 18.) 



Wednesday, July 8, 1896. — A drive was made frcm Polavina, 961 skins taken. 

 (P. 18) 



Friday, July 10, 1896. — Seal drive from Reef and Zoltoi, 1.271 sealskins being 

 taken. (P. 19.) 



July 11, 1896. — Jordan arrives, with his party, Thompson, et al. (P. 21.) 



Tuesday, July 14, 1896. — Seal drive made from east side of Northeast Point; 1,169 

 seals taken. (P. 22.) 



Wednesday, July 15, 1896. — Seal drive made from Reef and Zoltoi. The drive and 

 killing was attended by commission and officers off the Albatross. 2 (P. 22.) 



Thursday, July 16, 1896. — Seal drive made from English Bay and Tolstoi; 1,138 

 killed. (P. 22.) 



Tuesday, July 21, 1896. — Seal drive made from west side of Northeast Point; 808 

 seals were taken. (On the 22d, east side driven; 1,047 seals taken.) (P. 23.) 



Thursday, July 23, 1896.— Seal drive from Half Way Point; 585 seals taken. (P. 23.) 



Saturday, July 25, 1896. — Seal drive made from Lukannon, Ketavie, Zoltoi, and 

 Reef; 1,630 seals taken. Up to date 5.858 have been taken on St. George Island. 

 (P. 23.) 



Monday , July 27, 1896. — Seal drive from Middle Hill and Tolstoi; 504 seals were 

 killed, being 112 short of the number required (30,000) to complete the quota. In 

 order to complete the same a drive was made from Lukannon rookery and the 112 

 seals secured. (P. 24.) 



Sunday, August 23, 1896. —The Homer left at 3:30 p. m.; had on board 30,000 seal- 

 skins; 23,842 from St. Paul and 6,158 from St. George. (P. 473.) 



Then we find that in 1897 this taking of the small skins, as above, 

 in 1896 was continued, as the explicit admission is made of that many 

 "5-pound" skins were taken in the following entry, made in this 

 journal, to wit: The United States special agent says: 



Monday, July 5, 1897. — A drive of seals was made from Reef and Zoltoi with the 

 following results: Killed, 703. Many of those turned off as too large in the 



^arly part of the season were killed to-day, and I noticed a desire on the part of the 

 lessees' agent to secure both small and large skins as the seals came along. Many 

 Were killed whose skins would weigh 10 pounds and over, while, on the other hand, 

 many were taken whose skins would weigh from 5 pounds to 6^ pounds each. 



That this killing by the lessees on the islands was actually without 

 restraint on the part of Lembkey and his official assistants is con- 

 fessed most unwillingly in the following statement, made September 

 30, 1909, by Geo. A. Clark in his official report to the Bureau of 

 Fisheries (and which report U. S. Commissioner Bowers suppressed), 

 to wit (pp. 829-866, of Appendix A; House Committee on Expendi- 

 tures in the Department of Commerce and Labor, June 24, 1911) : 



(Original report examined by commissioner Oct. 8. Turned over to Mr. Lembkey 

 Oct. 9.') 



REPORT ON CONDITION OF FUR-SEAL HERD, 1909. 



Hon. George M. Bowers, 



Commissioner of Fisheries, Washington, D. C. 



Sir: I have the honor to submit herewith my detailed report on the condition of 

 the fur-seal herd on the Pribilof Islands, resulting from the investigations of the past 

 summer in accordance with your instructions of May 15, 1909, as follows: 



It is on the killing field, however, that the great need of a guiding and controlling 

 hand is shown. In 1896-97 the Government agents ordered the drives. 3 This season 



1 This is the only record of rejection of skins— ; ' Two road skins not accepted." Onlv two skins missed 

 out of the 30.000 that they killed in 1S96, or rather the 23,842 seals killed on St. Pauls Island (6,158 on St. 

 George) during the season of June-July, 1S96. A clean sweep. 



* This Is all of the entry.— ( H. W. E.) 



8 But Chief Special Agent Crowley says, Noy. 1, 1896, that the lessees have entire control of the killing 

 and selection of seals, in his official report for that year. See p. 78, antea. 



