478 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



on canned and salted meats at greater expense and to the detriment 

 of the health of the natives. 



Eleventh, a secondary or contributing loss resulting from the land 

 suspension: The Pribilof Islands is the home of a valuable herd of 

 fur-bearing animals — the blue foxes. At the recent sale of furs in 

 St. Louis the skins of these animals, according to the press dispatches 

 also, brought as high as $158 apiece, which is three times as much as 

 the sealskins themselves brought. The catch for St. Paul Island for 

 1912 averaged $95 each, and the total catch for the islands in that 

 year brought in $20,000 to the Treasury. During the period of the 

 two leases the total blue-fox catch numbered 40,000 pelts, about 1,000 

 annually. The Government ignored the foxes in its leases and there- 

 fore derived no income from them, the whole income going to the 

 companies. 



The extent of the blue-fox industry depends solely upon the food 

 supply. The islands would support an indefinite number of foxes if 

 only there was food for them. The birds in summer afford a con- 

 siderable supply of food, but in the winter the chief dependence of the 

 foxes has been upon the refuse meat of the killing fields. The law 

 cute this off. The animals have cannibalistic tendencies. When 

 food is scarce the old eat the young, the strong the weak; they are 

 bound by island conditions; they can not go to other places for food. 

 At $95, and especially at $158 per skin, the Government could afford 

 to feed these foxes on beef. The plains of the islands in summer 

 would fatten an indefinite number of cattle and sheep. Fox farming 

 has become an important industry at points in Canada; and from 

 our fox warrens in Alaska, not from the Pribilof Islands, come the 

 pairs of foxes that stock these Canadian fox farms. The Govern- 

 ment possesses the best natural plant in the world for developing a 

 fox industry. The seal meat from its killing fields, properly cared for, 

 under a system of cold storage or even by hanging it up carefully in 

 screened buildings and properly distributed, would support five times 

 the number of foxes that are present on the islands. But the law 

 stops the killing of seals and leaves the foxes to starve. If the close 

 season is carried through, the fox herd will be so depleted that it will 

 require years of careful nursing to bring it back even to its present 

 low and undeveloped state. It is hard, for me at least, to understand 

 why this important industry should be sacrificed to bring about a 

 wholly fictitious advantage to the fur-seal herd. 



In tliis connection I wish to mention briefly the relation of this 

 suspension of land sealing to the treaty of 1911. This treaty which 

 suspends pelagic sealing for 15 years has in it a definite bargain that 

 in lieu of the suspension of pelagic sealing the United States Govern- 

 ment shall give to Great Britain and Japan 15 per cent each of its 

 laud killings. It seems to me that this obligates the United States 

 to t ake a land killing and give 15 per cent of it to each of those nations. 

 The law stops us from doing that. 



Twelfth, the question of land killing of seals: This killing is con- 

 fined to the superfluous males. That is definite. The fur seal is 

 polygamous. The original law protected the females absolutely and 

 forbade the killing of animals under 1 year. Departmental regula- 

 tions have at times specifically protected other classes of animals— 

 as the 4-year-olds, and animals under 2 years of age; but no one could 

 determine definitely the ages of these animals. A judgment can be 



