190 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



males, which must be saved from the killing fields. A leasing company will be just 

 as eager to get all possible skins and will press the product of the hauling grounds, 

 rising all too slowly, to its limit unless restrained. 



* * * With a fixed legal quota, and a limited time in which to secure it from a 

 failing herd, there naturally results close, severe driving. In the eagerness to see that 

 no possible bachelor escapes, the edges of the rookies are encroached upon and cows 

 included in the drives. Fifty of them appeared in drives toward the close of this 

 season. A drive that can not be made without including cows should be omitted. 

 A drive which appears on the killing field with 15 to 20 cows in it should be released 

 rather than incur the danger of clubbing any such cow by mistake. There should be 

 some one in charge of the herd with power and discretion to do this. With a limited 

 killing season, however, this would be unfair to the lessees. There should also be 

 power and discretion to waive the limit and extend the time of killing if necessary. 



There has been on the killing grounds since 1900 a constant struggle on the part of 

 the leasing company in the closing years of its concession to get every possible skin 

 from the declining herd. Its work has been aided by a high arbitrary legal quota and 

 by a lowered minimum weight of skin, enabling it to gradually anticipate the quotas 

 of succeeding years by killing younger animals. As a result there has occurred in 

 these years probably the closest killing to which the herd has ever been subjected. 

 Aside from the diminished supply of male life on the breeding grounds in 1904, this 

 is shown in the fact that though the herd has declined two-thirds in size, the quota has 

 neA'er fallen more than one-third in size as compared with that of 1897. 



Opposed to this struggle of the lessees has been the counter struggle of the Govern- 

 ment's representatives to rescue a breeding reserve. Fortunately it has been suc- 

 cessful. 



The yearlings of both sexes for the season must number about 12,000 each. 



This question of the proportion of the sexec surviving to killable and breeding age 

 is a fundamental one. * * * During the present season and for some seasons past 

 a minimum of 5 pounds has been in force and skins taken ranging in weight all the 

 way from 4 to 14k pounds, bringing all classes of animals from yearlings to 4-year-olds 

 into the quota. 



The result of this manner of killing is that we have no clear idea from the quota of 

 the number of younger animals belonging to the herd. From the irregularity of the 

 movements of the yearlings of both sexes, and the 2-year-old cows, they can not be 

 counted or otherwise accurately estimated on the rookeries. (Report of the special 

 investigation ordered by Charles Nagel, Secretary of Commerce and Labor; fled Sept. 

 30, 1909, by Geo. A. Clark, pp. 850-851, 866, Appendix A, June ?A, 1911. House Com. 

 Exp. Dept. Com. and Labor.) 



For this change in 1909, from serving the lessees in 1896, Clark's 

 report was suppressed, and edited by the lessees' men, Bowers and 

 Lembkey, thus, November 17, 1909: 



Department op Commerce and Labor, 



Bureau of Fisheries, 

 Washington. November 17, 1909. 

 Mr. W. I. Lembkey, 



Bureau of Fisheries, Washington, D. C. 



Sir: Assuming that you have read and carefully considered the fur-seal report 

 recently made l>y Mr. George A. Clark, who visited the islands during the past summer, 

 I desire that you prepare a statement of your views regarding the report, particularly 

 with reference to such data and conclusions contained therein as do not agree with 

 your understanding of the facts and conditions. 



Kindly let me have this statement in form convenient for use at the conference of 

 the advisory board next Tuesday. 



Respectfully, Geo. M. Bowers, 



Commissioner. 



This baneful result of Dr. Jordan's work in 1896-97, which was to 

 assert positively that no killing by the lessees had been at fault or 

 was the cause of the decline of the fur-seal herd or would be, is thus 

 squarelv admitted by his own man, in 1909 — this man, Geo. A. 

 Clark. 



Leading up to this killing without any restraint (as stated truly 

 by Clark T in 1896, and continued to 1909, by the lessees, is the fol- 

 lowing inside light on the cause and warrant which permitted that 



