INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 261 



him ? Leland Stanford, Jr., University was then governed by a board 

 of trustees, and chief on that board was one of the lessees, D. O. Mills. 

 That lessee was a commanding figure. It might have been very un- 

 pleasant in result for Dr. Jordan had he stopped the lessees' work, as 

 he should have done, and reported their violation of the Secretary of 

 Treasury's order to the department, as was his sworn duty to do. 



Whatever may have been the cause of Jordan's dereliction in the 

 premises, the fact remains that he was derelict, and not from want 

 of knowledge of what a yearling seal was. 



On Jul} 7 24, 1913, the natives of St. Paul Island, during the course 

 of a meeting with the agents of the House Committee on Expenditures 

 in the Department of Commerce, on St. Paul Island, had this to say 

 of Dr. Jordan and this illegal work of 1896 (this statement is a depo- 

 sition duly taken) : 



Question. "When, after this year (1890), did you get orders to kill those small seals— 

 to kill all of them that came in the drives? 



Answer. In 1896 we commenced to take the 5-pound skins, to the best of our rec- 

 ollection. 



Question. Who directed this work of killing the small seals on the killing grounds? 



Answer. We do not remember; but J. Stanley Brown was the company's agent at 

 that time. 



Question. Did the Government agents object? 



Answer. We do not remember. 



This shows that no objection on the part of the Government agents 

 was made, or those natives surely would have recalled it, just as they 

 remembered that this particular work was begun, as stated. 



VIII. — This work of Dr. David Starr Jordan in 1896, was repeated 

 by him in 1897, and the same covering given to the killing of small 

 seals; and, on page 18 of his second preliminary report, dated 

 November 1, 1897, he says: 



Last year the hauling grounds of the Pribilof Islands yielded 30,000 killable seals. 

 During the present season a quota of only 20,890 could be taken. To get these it was 

 necessary to drive more frequently and cull the animals more closely than has been 

 done since 1889. The killing season was closed on July 27, in 1896. This year it 

 was extended on St. Paul to August 7, and on St. George to August 11. The quota 

 to be left to our discretion, and every opportunity was given the lessees to take the 

 full product of the hauling of grounds. 



ISAAC LIEBES SECURES THE APPOINTMENT OF LEMBKEY THROUGH 

 THE MEDIUM OF DR. JORDAN ON SEPTEMBER 30, 1900, BY SECRE- 

 TARY GAGE. 



We have shown how the lessees managed to get rid of Chief Special 

 Agent Goff and Assistant Agent Lavender, and then to suborn 

 Assistant Agents Murray and Nettleton, who at first had joined with 

 Goff. We have shown how they secured the appointment of W illiams 

 to succeed Goff, and Ziebach to take Lavender's place. We have 

 shown how they secured the appointment of J Stanley Brown to take 

 Williams's place after the latter had expressed his dislike of the course 

 which he had been ordered to pursue as Goff's successor. We have 

 shown how Brown promptly made an official order July 8, 1892, 

 turning the whole business of driving, selection, and killing of seals 

 on the killing grounds to the lessees ; and we have shown how Brown, 

 for this guilty subserviency and malfeasance as a United States 

 agent, had been made the " superintendent of the North American 



