494 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



regular sealing in 1918 will require. Not merely must the natives be 

 held in discipline and control, but the men who direct them must have 

 experience and know what they are abou^ if they are to handle tne 

 problem properly from their side. 



I say to your committee, then, in conclusion, let us give to the fur- 

 seal herd and to the other resources of the Pribiloff Islands something 

 of that intelligent care and oversight which the owner of a stock farm 

 would devote to his interests. The problems and needs are the same 

 in one case as in the other. 



I offer this statement to you on the basis of long study of this fur- 

 seal problem as an expert, not interested in establishing this or that 

 theory about the seals, but looking at them from the point of view of 

 a man who, for example, might be considering his own stock farm. I 

 do not speak as an eminent scientist, nor as a scientific man. I am 

 speaking because as a boy I was brought up on a farm, and know all 

 about the breeding of domestic animals, and particularly the breeding 

 of sheep. It was my knowledge of the breeding of sheep that enabled 

 me to understand the fur-seal problem. 



This is my formal statement. I wish now to take up certain mat- 

 ters less formally that grow out of the publications of the committee. 

 First, I want to discuss a little more fully the matter of the killing of 

 yearlings, because that is really the crucial thing before the committee. 



Mr. McGuire. Mr. Chairman, I have some questions I want to ask, 

 and I believe if the witness is through with his formal statement I 

 might just as well commence now, unless the chairman or Mr. Patton 

 has some questions. 



The Chairman. I have some questions to ask, but I prefer that you 

 should go ahead now. 



Mr. McGuire. When did you last make a count of the herd? 



Mr. Clark. I made it in the past summer, 1913. 



Mr. McGuire. How many seals did you find there were on the 

 islands in 1913? 



Mr. Clark. I estimated the herd at 268,000. 



Mr. McGuire. What process did you use for that estimate? 



Mr. Clark. In the height of the breeding season when the harems are 

 all established — that is, between the 12th and 18th or 20th of July — 

 I counted all of the bulls in charge of harems, 1,403 of them; those we 

 call the active bulls. At the same time, I counted all of the bulls of 

 adult size that were not in charge of harems, animals that we call 

 idle hulls, 105 in all. In addition, I counted all the animals of full 

 breeding size connected with the rookeries, but without harems. 

 They are the young bulls and numbered 259. These animals are 

 large, 500-pound animals, and therefore they are very conspicuous. 

 It is as easy to count them as it would be to count the lamp-posts on 

 a city block. 



Then in going over the rookeries to get this count of bulls I esti- 

 mated the animals on the hauling grounds, the bachelors, and found 

 12,000 animals as the total of any one clay's inspection. But of 

 course they come and go so that that was merely an estimate and 

 did not give the full number. 



Then after the breeding season was over and before the pups had 

 begun to take to the water, we went on the rookeries, drove off the 

 adult males and the adult females and we counted the live pups one 

 by one. 



