254 INVESTIGATION OP THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



Mr. Elliott. I think the range is about 3 to 4 inches; a small yearling skin goes 

 30 inches, a good average yearling skin 34 inches, and a "long" yearling 36 inches. 

 There are three grades. 



Mr. Madden. All seals are not of the same size? 



Mr. Elliott. No; but there is the general average, and you can very easily keep 

 within the limit. 



3. As a warrant for the urgent need of killing annually on the 

 islands, practically all of the young male seals that could be secured, 

 the Bureau of Fisheries issued statements to the press, and made a 

 sworn statement as follows to the committee, Apiil 20, 1913 (Hearing 

 No. 10, p. 521, H. Com. Exp. Dept. Com. & Labor) : 



6. If the surplus males are not killed, they not only become valueless for their skins, 

 but they grow up into bulls not needed for breeding purposes, but which nevertheless 

 pass on to the rookeries, where they do great damage to the breeding herd by fighting 

 among themselves for possession of the cows, often tearing the cows to pieces, so injuring 

 them that many of their pups are still-born, trampling the helpless pups to death, 

 exhausting their own vitality and virility, and rendering themselves less potent than 

 they would be without such useless struggle — in short, causing infinite trouble and 

 injury to the rookeries without a single compensating advantage. 



That this statement was absolutely without foundation in fact, 

 that it was deliberately put up to the committee to deceive, and so 

 warrant this excessive and illegal killing on the islands since 1890, 

 to date of its making, as above, has been made a matter of repeated 

 record in the hearings held from May 31, 1911, to July 31, 1912. 



The spectacle of 22 "distinguished scientists" being invoked by 

 the Bureau of Fisheries to sustain that untruthful statement, when 

 each and every one of those "authorities" have never given out a 

 word touching it, in all of their writing and talking, that even faintly 

 asserts the same. 



Nothing of the kind has ever been witnessed on the breeding 

 rookeries by any competent authority, and nothing of the kind ever 

 will be, since it is not the habit of these animals to "tear the cows to 

 pieces," and "trample the helpless pups to death." 



All of this fighting between the bulls takes place, and is over prac- 

 tically, every season, long before the cows arrive; it was accurately 

 observed and published by Elliot 40 years ago. (See Mono. Seal 

 Islands, 1874-L882.) 



The foregoing briefed selections from the sworn testimony cited, 

 declares that a combination has existed between the officials of the 

 Seal Islands and the lessees' agents from 1891 to 1909, which was con- 

 tinued in Washington between said contractors and the Bureau of 

 Fisheries to deceive the Departments of the Treasury and Commerce 

 and the House committee. 



It declares the fact that this officialism and the lessees have not 

 succeeded in deceiving the committee, and the committee is fully 

 warranted in asking the House to approve its findings of fact and 

 recommendations as set forth in its report, No. 1425, on Jan. 31, 1913. 



