118 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



Note. — Confirmatory of the natives' account as before given, that 

 the lessees, after turning away the "small seals" in 1890, began in 1896 

 to take them all as they drove, is the following order of the Secretary 

 of the Treasury, entered in the Treasury Agent's Journal, St. Paul 

 Island, Wednesday, June 17, 1896, p. 14, to wit. This order pre- 

 vented the lessees then from taking yearling seals. It reads : 



Treasury Department, Office of the Secretary, 



Washington, D. C, May 14, 1896. 

 Mr. J. B. Crowley, 



Special Agent in Charge of the Seal Islands. 



Sir: I inclose herewith for your information copy of a letter dated the 13th instant, 

 addressed by me to the Secretary of the Treasury, and approved by him, in regard 

 to the taking of fur seals on the Pribilof Islands. * * * The killing of yearlings and 

 seals whose skins weigh less than 6 pounds is prohibited. 



Respectfully, yours, C. S. Hamlin, 



Acting Secretary. 



This is the same Mr. Hamlin who, as Assistant Secretary of the 

 Treasury, landed on St. Paul Island August 3, 1894, and became 

 aware of the distinction then as drawn against killing yearlings. He 

 issues this order in 1896, having been informed that the lessees had 

 resolved to get them if they could not fill out their annual quota of 

 30,000 seals as allowed them in 1896. This order stopping the taking 

 of small seals by placing the limit at 6 pounds shut out all the year- 

 lings completely, and beyond the power of the lessees' agent to con- 

 ceal that taking, if he attempted to do so. It shut out the "long 

 yearlings" and the "short" 2-year-olds also. In spite of this 

 order, Dr. Jordan allowed the lessees to kill and take over 8,000 year- 

 lings in 1896. 



By some official manipulation the lessees in 1900 were permitted to 

 take "every 5-pound slun that could be found," or every yearling 

 that hauled unless a "runt" and worthless. 



This was checked in 1904, May 1, by the "Hitchcock rules," which 

 have not been entered on the official log here, and which have been 

 steadily nullified ever since they were published up to the end of the 

 lessees' killing under their lease, May 1, 1910. 



H. W. E. 

 A. F. G. 



Transcript of Stenographic Notes made of 



Natives' Statements at a Public Meeting 

 in the Village Hall, St. Paul Village, 



St. Paul Island, Alaska, July 23, 1918 — 8 p. m. 

 Thirty-four of the natives were present at this meeting. 



statement made to the natives by mr. elliott: 



Natives and people of St. Paul Island: We have called you to 

 meet us to-night. We have been sent up to these islands by a com- 

 mittee of the United States House of Representatives, charged with 

 the duty of looking into the condition oi the seal rookeries, and all 

 other public affairs here, connected with the sealing business. 



We are soon to return to Washington, and report to that commit- 

 tee the findings of fact as we shall get them. 



