490 INVESTIGATION" OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



Mr. Clark. We have fought for it since 1896. 



The Chairman. An attempt was made to bring about a treaty at 

 the time when Mr. Hay was the Secretary of State, but somehow 

 it was sidetracked, and nothing was done at all until Secretary Knox 

 and Secretary Nagel took it up with the other Governments. I 

 can see no reason why it should not have been done long ago. 



Mr. Clark. I am sure that in 1896-97 that was one of the things 

 we demonstrated. We demonstrated, first, that land killing was 

 not responsible for the destruction of the herd, and, second, that 

 the indiscriminate killing of females involved in pelagic sealing was 

 responsible for it. 



(Thereupon, at 12 o'clock noon, the committee agreed unanimously 

 to a recess until 2 o'clock p. m.) 



AFTER RECESS. 



The committee met, pursuant to recess, at 2 o'clock p. m. 



The Chairman. Mr. Clark, you may proceed with your statement. 



Mr. Clark. I was discussing topic 18, some criticisms of the 

 Government's policy in handling fur-seal matters. At critical 

 times the herd has been subjected to investigation and then allowed 

 to lapse into obscurity again, to be reinvestigated at some new time 

 of crisis. Thus the condition of the herd was looked into by Mr. 

 Elliott in 1872-1874, and then it was neglected until 1890, a period of 

 16 years in which the herd had suffered a loss of about four-fifths 

 of its breeding stock without a word of warning from land till 1889. 

 Then followed the feverish and expensive activity of the Paris 

 Tribunal of Arbitration, which cost $1,000,000 in expense and 

 damages and gave us a worthless set of regulations. That is, a set 

 of regulations which prohibited sealing for three months in the 

 summer and established a protected zone of 60 miles radius around 

 the British islands. 



The Ciiaikmaw When was this? 



Mr. Clark. In 1S93. These regulations were the direct result 

 of our lack of adequate knowledge of the life habits of the seals. 



It was not possible for our people to establish the fact that the 

 mother seal curries her young practically 12 months and that she 

 did not feed within 60 miles of the islands. Therefore it made no 

 difference that she was protected from slaughter for three months 

 while she was reaching the islands when she was liable to slaughter 

 in the two months immediately following her going to sea to feed, 

 and as she docs not feed within 60 miles of the islands a 60-mile 

 protected zone did not protect her. 



In 1896-97 the herd was again investigated and the futility of 

 the Paris Tribunal regulations disclosed, the cause of the herd's 

 decline ascertained, and the remedy suggested. That was the 

 object of the commission of 1896-97, a joint British and American 

 commission, a determination of the effect of the Paris Tribunal 

 regulations. In the first year of their establishment the largest 

 catch of the pelagic sealing industry was taken. Therefore it was 

 suspected that something was wrong, and this commission was to 

 find out what the trouble was. It determined that pelagic sealing 

 was the sole cause of the herd's decline, and it also determined that 

 it was useless to revise or remodel the regulations; that the only 

 thing that would protect the herd was the abolition of pelagic sealing. 



