INVESTIGATION OP THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 465 



Mr. Watkins. You mean if they are to be identified? 



The Chairman. Well, they can be identified enough. In other 

 words, those that are reserved for breeding purposes can not be killed 

 under the law and regulations. 



Mr. Clark. Of course, in order to make it a violation of the law 

 in the killing of those it would be necessary to prove 



The Chairman (interposing). Not what it is necessary to prove, 

 but is it not against the regulations and the law to do it ? That is a 

 plain, simple question. 



Mr. Clark. The regulation provides that they shall not be killed 

 at least in the year they are branded, and of course it ought to be 

 permanent. 



The Chairman. Are you going to impress the committee, now, 

 with the fact that that is the case, or that it is absolutely true that 

 when they are reserved for breeding purposes they shall not be 

 molested or touched ? 



Mr. Clark. Well, that ought to be so. In my report I called 

 attention to the fact that there was danger of killing in the following 

 year an animal that had been given a temporary mark in the year 

 under consideration, and I wanted to have substituted for that tem- 

 porary sheep-shearing mark a permanent brand. In 1912 we 

 demonstrated that a permanent brand with a red hot iron could be 

 made, and I wanted that substituted for the sheep-shearing brand. 



The Chairman. Then you are not clear whether that is true in the 

 regulations as you have stated it. Is it not a fact that accordingto 

 the regulations, no seal can be taken after he is reserved ? Dr. 

 Evermann, what is your recollection about that ? 



Dr. Evermann. Mr. Chairman, I do not think the regulations have 

 covered that point. The regulations assume that when you set aside 

 ascertain number of seals as a breeding reserve, they will be protected 

 as a reserve, and we have all recognized that with this temporary 

 brand they can not be distinguished the next year. If they were 

 3-year-olds and branded with a sheep-shearing brand, when they 

 came back the next year they would be 4 years old and the weight 

 limits would exempt them largely, not because of the instructions 

 but because of their weight of more than 8| pounds. 



The Chairman. My recollection was, and I want to be right about 

 it, that the condition is not in the regulations, but that after they are 

 once exempted they continue to be exempted, and it is contrary to 

 the regulations to take them. 



Dr. Evermann. The regulations have never said that you can not 

 kill a seal because he is branded. 



The Chairman. But they fix a pound limit the same as they do 

 with smaller seals ? 



Dr. Evermann. Yes; 8 \ pounds. 



Mr. Maguire. They are exempted by limitation after a certain 

 time; after a certain time they do not want them. 



Dr. Evermann. But if a yearling or small seal were branded when 

 it came back next year, that seal might be killed legally, provided his 

 skin did not weigh as much as 8J pounds. 



The Chairman. In other words, there is a maximum fixed by the 

 regulations, and a minimum, and if they go beyond either it is unlaw- 

 ful to take them ? 



53490—14 30 



