506 INVESTIGATION OP THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



Mr. Clark. Mr. Chairman, I want to state there that I waited until 

 I could be safe in saying that the number of pups which might be 

 born after I completed my count was an absolutely negligible quantity. 



The Chairman. You mean to say you have made a correct count 

 from the 31st of July in about 10 days? 



Mr. McGtjtre. Did you make a count in 1910 or 1911? 



Mr. Clark. I did not. 



-Mr. McGuire. Did you make a count in 1909? 



Mr. Clark. I did; yes. 



Mr. McGuire. Were you not there in 1910 and 1911 ? 



Mr. Clark. No. 



Mr. McGuire. How many seals were there in 1909 ? 



Mr. Clark. In 1909? 



Mr. McGuire. Yes. 



Mr. Clark. In 1909 the estimate is 158,000, made up differently, 

 however, from the census of 1912 and 1913. 



Mr. McGuire. How differently ? Do you think it was made up 

 as accurately ? 



Mr. Clark. Less so, I think. In 1896 and 1897, when the Jordan- 

 Thompson Commission undertook to make an estimate, they found 

 the question in great confusion. For instance, it had not been under- 

 stood until these counts that I speak of here were made, that there 

 was not a time in the height of the breeding season when practically 

 all the cows were present. It had been assumed that at the time 

 when the harems are compact and the greatest possible number of 

 cows were present that all of them were there. It was assumed that 

 an estimate at that time would give a complete census of the cows, or 

 at least so complete that the number omitted was a negligible quan- 

 tity. When we found there were twice as many pups as visible cows, 

 it threw the whole past history of that matter in confusion. 



That was why the commission went back a second year, because 

 the estimate made in 1895 by Messrs. True and Townsend had 

 assumed that all the cows were present at the time they made the 

 estimate and took the census. About 75,000 cows were estimated, 

 and we were forced to make nearly double that number. The basis 

 of the previous censuses had been acreage measurements or square- 

 foot measurements; that is, the area of the rookeries was computed 

 from maps and a certain space assigned to an individual seal. A 

 division was made, and that was the population. 



Partly because of the discovery that the cows were not all there 

 at that time, and for other reasons, we decided that we would estab- 

 lish a new basis. Dr. Jordan wanted a more accurate basis, and we 

 discovered that we could count all the breeding females. Then he 

 assigned to Mr. Mccoun and myself the business of making a count 

 of the cows on a certain portion of the rookeries, and we covered 

 one-fourth of the rookery space in 1896, with a view to getting an 

 average harem, which we could apply to the total number of harems 

 and in that way we could get a more accurate estimate of the animals. 



In 1897 we recounted the pups on this same area, and the com- 

 missions agreed that the difference between the birth rate of 1896 

 and that of 1897, 13h per cent, was accepted as a measure of decline 

 in the herd for the two seasons. We took that basis of the average 

 harem and applied it to the herd as a whole, and we made up the 

 estimate. In 1909 I duplicated that method exactly. We counted 



