INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 411 



VII. 



The statements in the official reports of Dr. David Starr Jordan, president of Advisory 

 Board on Fur Seal Service, United States Bureau of Fisheries, who is one of the 

 experts cited to the United States Senate Committee on Conservation of National 

 Resources, January 14, 1911, and to the House Committee on Expenditures in Depart- 

 ment of Commerce and Labor, June 9, 1911, by Secretary Charles Nagel as his authority 

 for killing seals in violation of law and regulations: 

 Mr. Bowers. The advisory board, fur-seal service, consists of the following: 

 Dr. David Starr Jordan, president of Stanford University, who was chairman of the 

 International Fur-Seal Commissions of 1896 and 1897, appointed in pursuance of the 

 treaty of February 29, 1892, and whose published report in four volumes is the most 

 comprehensive, thorough, and valuable treatise that has ever been published on all 

 matters pertaining to the fur seal and the seal islands. Dr. Jordan is the most dis- 

 tinguished and best known naturalist in the world. (Hearing No. 2, p. 109, June 9, 

 1911.) 



THE DEADLY PARALLEL. 



Dr. Jordan falsifies Yanovsky's 

 official report to the Secretary of 

 the Treasury to justify the un- 

 truth stated in re "Russian killing 

 of male and female seals alike. " 



At once on assuming control of the 

 islands the Russian-American Co. put 

 a stop * * *. They still continued 

 to kill males and females alike. The 

 injury to the herd naturally continued. 



In 1820 Yanovsky, an agent of the 

 Imperial Government, after an inspection 

 of the fur-seal rookeries, called attention 

 to the practice of killing the young ani- 

 mals, leaving only the adults as breeders. 

 He writes: "If any of the young breeders 

 are not killed by the autumn they are 

 sure to be killed in the following spring." 

 From this course of action he concludes 

 that the industry decreases every year in 

 volume, and may in the course of time 

 be extinguished entirely. (Fur Seal In- 

 vestigations, pt. 1, p. 25, 1898.) 



Dr. Jordan declares that the 

 Russians ruined the Pribilof fur- 

 seal herd by an indiscriminate 

 killing of female and male seals, 

 1800-1834. 



They (the Russian -American Co.) still 

 continued to kill males and females alike. 

 The injur^r to the herd naturally con- 

 tinued. * * * (Fur-Seal Investiga- 

 ion?, pt. 1, p. 25. 1898.) 



The text of Yanovsky's report, 

 1820, which denies the statement 

 of Dr. Jordan in re Russian killing 

 of female seals. Jordan has used 

 the word "breeders" for "bach- 

 elors" in Yanovsky's statement, 

 and thus falsifies it. 



In his report No. 41 of February 25, 

 1820, Mr. Yanovsky, in giving an account 

 of his inspection of the operations on the 

 islands of St. Faul and St. George, ob- 

 serves that "every year the young" 

 bachelor seals are killed, and that only 

 the cows, siekatchie, and half siekatchie 

 are left to propagate the species. It fol- 

 lows that only the old seals are left, while 

 if any of the bachelors are left alive in 

 the autumn they are sure to be killed the 

 next spring. The consequence is the 

 number of seals obtained diminishes 

 every year, and it is certain that the 

 species will in time become extinct." 

 (Appendix to Case of the United States, 

 Fur Seal Arbitration (Letter No. 6, p. 58, 

 Mar. 5, 1821), 1893.) 



But Dr. Jordan published a 

 translation of Bishop Veniami- 

 nov, who explicitly denies that 

 killing by the Russians, 1800- 

 1834, when the seal herd was de- 

 stroyed. 



The taking of fur seals commences in 

 the latter days of September * * *. 

 The siekatchie and the old females hav- 

 ing been removed, the others divided in- 

 to small squads, are carefully driven to 

 the place where they are to be killed, 

 sometimes more than 10 versts distant. 



When brought to the killing grounds 

 the seals are rested for an hour, or more, 

 according to circumstances, and then 

 killed with a club. * * * . 



