INVESTIGATION OF THE PUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OE ALASKA. 361 



Townsend swears that he never 

 believed in renewing the seal lease. 



The Chairman. Dr. Townsend, you 

 were asked at a former hearing whether 

 you wrote a letter advising the releasing 

 of the islands for another term of years. 



Dr. Townsend. I believe there was 

 such a question. 



The Chairman. And there was such a 

 letter produced in the hearing, or a copy 

 of a letter for the hearing. That letter 

 was dated, I think, January, 1910, was it 

 not? 



Dr. Townsend, I have forgotten the 

 letter. 1 have not seen it since then. 



The Chairman. The letter is dated 

 Janaury 31, 1910. 



Dr. Townsend. Yes, sir. 



The Chairman. On November 17, 

 1909, the advisory board had a meeting in 

 which you participated and pursuant to 

 which you made some recommendations 

 to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. 

 Do you remember that there was such a 

 meeting? 



Dr. Townsend. I was at such a meet- 

 ing; yes, sir. 



The Chairman. And the printed docu- 

 ments here show that it was on November 

 23, 1909. Was there any discussion of the 

 releasing of the islands at this meeting of 

 the advisory board? 



Dr. Townsend. I have no distinct rec- 

 ollection of just what we did at these meet- 

 ings. I do not remember that that point 

 was discussed with any fullness, at least. 



The Chairman. If you were of the 

 opinion that the islands should not be re- 

 leased, why did you not make such a 

 recommendation to the Secretary, to- 

 gether with the other members of the 

 board? 



Dr. Townsend. I was never of the 

 opinion that the islands should be re- 

 leased. I simply supposed that it would 

 be impossible for the Government to take 

 them over, and that they would be re- 

 leased no matter what anybody could say, 

 because they had always been leased. 

 While I lived on the islands, there was 

 always more or less friction between the 

 lessees and the Government's authorities, 

 and I always felt that the Government 

 had as well have the profits of the seal 

 islands rather than divide them with the 

 lessees. (Hearing No. 13, p. 797, June 8, 

 1912.) 



But Townsend "as a member 

 of the advisory board" urges a 

 renewal of the seal lease. 



The "advisory board " gets busy — must 

 renew the Elkins lease. 



New York Aquarium, 

 Battery Park, New York, January 31,1910. 



Hon. George M. Bowers, 



Commissioner United States Bureau of 

 Fisheries, Washington, D. C. 



Dear Sir: As a member of the fur-seal 

 advisory board of your department and 

 one always interested in matters pertain- 

 ing to the fur-seal industry, I wish to call 

 your attention to an important letter re- 

 ceived from Mr. Alfred Fraser, which is 

 inclosed herewith. 



I have known Mr. Fraser for many years 

 and have every confidence in his knowl- 

 edge of this subject, as well as his entire 

 sincerity. During the many years that 

 the subject of the fur-seal fishery has been 

 before our Government authorities he has 

 supplied freely important statistics cf the 

 fur-seal trade. He has been the principal 

 American buyer of sealskins in this coun- 

 try, and has been in the business for a 

 lifetime. 



There can be no doubt that a reduction 

 in the number of sealskins now coming 

 from the Pribilofs would be of most inju- 

 rious to the sealskin trade. 



It is to be hoped that the Pribilof Is- 

 lands will be released this year, and that 

 a small supply of skins will be kept avail- 

 able to the fur trade. The reasons for this 

 are strongly set forth in Mr. Fraser's letter. 



It is also important that the Treasury 

 Department be requested to reconsider 

 the matter of duty on sealskins. 



The margin of profit left to the trade 

 after the payment of duties on skins whose 

 value is already enhanced by the Gov- 

 ernment tax on the Pribilof catch, makes 

 them enormously expensive. In fact, 

 their cost is almost prohibitive. 



I feel that with fur-seal service trans- 

 ferred to your bureau and the presence in 

 your office of a number of men well in- 

 formed on this subject, you are in a posi- 

 tion to make a good presentation of Mr. 

 Fraser's letter to the proper authorities, 

 and I earnestly hope that you will under- 

 take to have this important matter prop- 

 erly presented. 



I would suggest also that a copy of this 

 letter be sent to Senator Dixon, who has 

 introduced a resolution calling for a cessa- 

 tion of seal killing on the Pribilofs, which 

 would undoubtedly result in more harm 

 than good at the present time. 



Very respectfully, yours, 



C. H. Townsend. 



(Hearing No. 3, July 6, 1911, pp. 159, 

 160.) 



