202 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



THE SUBORNATION OF SCIENCE TO SERVE A CRIMINAL TRESPASS 

 ON THE FUR-SEAL HERD OF ALASKA. 



(To justify the killing of all the young male seals, the false argu- 

 ment was used that if they did not do so they would only grow up, go 

 onto the breeding grounds, fight there, "and tear the cows to pieces 

 and trample the pups to death." Dr. Stejneger was one of the scien- 

 tific authorities quoted for this nonsense and fraud.) 



Dr. Stejneger denies in his report of 1898, his own sworn statement 

 made to the House committee of May 4, 1912, in re trampled pups. 

 He does so in the most explicit language, and he is now quoted below 

 from his finished and "elaborate report," which he handed to the 

 chairman when he was sworn and examined. He says in it that the 

 pups are not harmed by severe, prolonged trampling, to wit: 



It is certainly significant that on Bering Island over a thousand pups are yearly 

 driven to the killing ground, there to be released, without any visible harm coming to 

 them worth mentioning. If these newly born seals can stand to be driven threes 

 fourths of a mile from Kishotchnoye and to be repeatedly trampled upon by the larger 

 ones piling up four high or more on top of them, it stands to reason that the vigorous 

 holustiaki, or even the females as a whole, can suffer but little injury from the same 

 cause. (The Fur-Seal Investigations, Pt. IV, 1898, p. 101, by Leonhard Stejneger.) 



After having deliberately published the above as "facts" of his 

 own observation in 1898, yet Dr. Leonhard Stejneger in 1912 denies 

 it under oath to the House committee as follows. 



Witness the following sworn proof of it, to wit : 



Investigation of Fur-Seal Industry of Alaska. 



Committee on Expenditures in the 

 Department of Commerce and Labor, 



House of Representatives, 



Saturday, May 4, 1912. 



The committee met at 10 o'clock a. m., Hon. John H. Rothermel (chairman) pre- 

 siding. 



Present: Messrs. Young, McGillicuddy, and McGuire. 



STATEMENT OF LEONHARD STEJNEGER. 



Leonard Stejneger, having been duly sworn, was examined, and testified as 

 follows: 



Dr. Stejneger. In that case, I should say I first came to the Commander Islands in 

 1882 and stayed until the fall of 1883, remaining the winter. 



Mr. McGuire. Continuously? 



Dr. Stejneger. Yes. I saw the whole business from beginning to end during two 

 seasons. I mapped the rookeries, and I have made a very elaborate report on that. 

 This [handing book to the chairman] gives all the data. 



In 1896 I was appointed a member of the Fur-Seal Investigation Commission, of 

 which Dr. Jordan was the chairman. We went up early in the season and I stayed on 

 the Pribilof Islands for 10 days with the otber members of the commission and went 

 all over the rookeries at that time, and did part of the counting of the rookeries on the 

 American islands, and then went over to the Commander Islands again and inspected 

 the rookeries there, mapped the distribution of the seals on the rookeries then as com- 

 pared to what they were in 1882, 1883, and 1895. 



******* 



Mr. McGuire. According to your observation, now, Doctor, if those herds were left 

 alone untouched by man. what would you regard as the principal agencies of destruc- 

 tion of that animal life? 



