INVESTIGATION OF THE FUE-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 199 



The reason why Dr. Merriam did not is perhaps best stated in his 

 testimony on May 4, 1912, to the House committee. He was opposed 

 to the killing of yearling seals under any circumstances, to wit : 



Mr. McGttire. Then, in case anyone in the House of Representatives has used 

 your name as a person who would be opposed to the killing on the islands they were 

 wrong about your position? 



Dr. Merriam. They were wrong. T have never taken any such position. I have 

 always held the contrary. I have always stated, since the first time I went there, 

 that conservative killing on the islands was a benefit to the herd and not an injury, 

 but I should not allow the killing of yearlings under any circumstances, and I should 

 not kill more than 75 per cent of the young on land at any one time. I would be sure 

 to leave more than enough for possible contingencies. (Hearing No. 11, pp. 694-695, 

 May 4, 1912, H. Com. Exp. Dept. C. & L.) 



So it is very evident that Secretary Nagel did not take the advice 

 of Dr. Merriam, and as for Mr. Hitchcock, his well-known opposition 

 to this violation of the rules of the department — the Hitchcock rules 

 of May 1, 1904, needs no further comment here. 



Then why did Secretary Nagel persist in killing these yearling 

 seals, males and females alike? Of 7,333 of them in 1910 and 6,247 

 of them in 1911? 



Because there was nothing left that the agents could find to kill, 

 and this continued improper killing would make the false reports of 

 1906, 1907, 1908, and 1909, which the lessees had written, "regular," 

 and hide the sudden collapse in killing which would appear instantly 

 if no yearlings were taken in 1910; also in 1911. 



That is why he persisted in this criminal trespass — to prevent the 

 sudden exposure oi it by contrast between the unlawful killing of 1909 

 with a lawful killing in 1910; and again in 1911. 



SAMPLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC "AUTHORITY" QUOTED BY SECRETARY 

 CHARLES NAGEL, JAN. 14, 1911, AS HIS WARRANT FOR KILLING 7,733 

 YEARLINGS IN 1910. 



The peculiar and particular "science" which those lawless lessees 

 and their agents on the islands and in Washington had complete 

 regard for in the persons of Dr. Jordan and his assistants, is well 

 exhibited in Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, whose remarkably frank testi- 

 mony follows. 



Stejneger, strangely enough, has no knowledge of what the agents 

 of the Bureau of Fisheries, Bowers, et al., have been doing as to illegal 

 killing of yearling seals on the Pribilof Islands, season of 1910. And 

 he had no official consultation with Bowers or Nagel about it, he 

 swears. 



Then, in the next breath, he declares that if the law did not pre- 

 vent, he would kill yearlings. In other words, he would do exactly 

 as Bowers and Nagel did do. 



Dr. Stejneger is unfortunate in his "scientific" advice to those men 

 when he says : 



I hold that you can kill, in the months of June and July — that is the season prac- 

 tically when the" killing is done — in the season you can kill all the males without 

 any detriment to the herd. I will say all the usable skins, three years and less; that 

 is my opinion, my deliberate opinion. 



The Chairman. But I understood Prof. Elliott to ask you whether you advised 

 Mr. Bowers? 



Dr. Stejneger. I may have said that very thing. 



The Chairman. Kill all the killable seals? 



