INVESTIGATION OP THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OP ALASKA. 459 



The Chairman. Did you ever say to him, "I will make you smart, 

 for having meddled in the fur-seal matter" ? 



Mr. Clark. I might probably have said that to him. 



The Chairman. Did you say it? 



Mr. Clark. Probably; and he also said to me, "If you say another 

 word about fur seals I will take it out of Dr. Jordan," or something to 

 that effect. 



The Chairman. So you wanted him to be punished, did you? 



Mr. Clark. That was 



The Chairman (interposing): What did you mean by saying, "I 

 will make you smart?" 



Mr. Clark. That was a case where a man was mad. He called me 

 a liar and said I had deceived the Secretary, and I said things I would 

 not otherwise have said if I had stopped to think about it. 



The Chairman. Why did you say he had meddled? What did 

 he do ? 



Mr. Clark. Because Dr. Hornaday has no right to be heard on the 

 fur-seal matter. He has never been on the islands, and therefore has 

 no first-hand knowledge to offer. 



The Chairman. But why did you say he meddled ? Would he not 

 have a right to talk about it if he thought something was wrong? 



Mr. Clark. I would consider I was meddling if I had never been on 

 the islands and had never seen a seal and then spoke with authority 

 regarding them. 



The Chairman. You were a Government official then and were 

 paid by the Government. Do you not think he had a right to call 

 attention to things he thought were wrong? 



Mr. Clark. He had, if he had information to base his statements on. 



The Chairman. What did you mean by "making him smart?" 



Mr. Clark. Well, I thought I would like to call attention to the fact 

 that he had made a mistake when he said there were only 30,000 seals 

 in the herd and that I lied when I said there were 158,000. 



The Chairman. Did you mean to try to get him discharged, or what 

 was the idea ? 



Mr. Clark. I do not know. I will admit that that was a statement 

 that was not worth making. 



The Chairman. But you had made a report to the Government 

 about the killing of these yearling seals and that there was "whirlwind 

 sealing" going on, and that "no seal was too small" for the company 

 to kill while you were on the ground; now why should Dr. Hornaday 

 because he wanted to talk about what you said officially to the Gov- 

 ernment 



Mr. Clark (interposing). I did not say that yearling seals were 

 killed. 



The Chairman. One minute. Why should he suffer when he called 

 attention to the report you made ? 



Mr. Clark. He had no occasion 



The Chairman (interposing). Is it because you are peculiarly inter- 

 ested in it, or why ? 



Mr. Clark. Well, I will tell you. I was particularly vexed because 

 he told me that I had manipulated and arranged my figures to deceive 

 the Secretary. Now, everything can be explained on that. That is 

 a hard charge to make against a man who has done scientific work and 



