INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 543 



The Chairman. You also describe the killing on the breeding 

 reserve, do you not, in your report ? 



Mr. Clark. I criticize the method by which the breeding reserve 

 was maintained. Let me read what I said in that regard. 



The Chairman. I will be very glad to hear it; I am not very sure 

 about it myself. 



Mr. Clark. At page 866, I said: 



Opposed to this struggle of the lessees has been the counter-struggle of the Gov- 

 ernment's representatives to rescue a breeding reserve. Fortunately it has been 

 successful. 



That is what I said. 



The Chairman. Then the company must have made an effort to 

 get the breeding reserve ? 



Mr. Clark. I do not know. They did not get it, at any rate. I 

 do not know anything about that. 



The Chairman. In hearing No. 1, page 11: 



A new lot of 2,000 are clipped for the next season, and these are carefully exempted, 

 but except in so far as animals of the previous season's marking are reclipped, they 

 have no protection the second season, and without doubt are killed. 



Mi\ Clark. That is my criticism of the breeding reserve. It was 

 made with sheep shears, with a temporary mark, and what I wanted 

 was to substitute for that a red-hot iron brand, which would leave 

 that animal immune for the rest of his life. That was a ciiticism of 

 the method of making a breeding reserve, which I said, despite its 

 limitations, was successful. 



Mr. McGuire. That was the reason you recommended the Govern- 

 ment take over the operations ? 



Mr. Clark. Yes. 



Mr. McGuire. Have you the pages there with regard to charges of 

 improper killing in 1896 and 1897 ? 



ill. Clark. There is a charge of killing made against Dr. Jordan 

 at page 98. 



Mr. McGuire. That is right; and at pages 101 and 103. What 

 have you to say about that ? 



Mr. Clark. At page 98, at the bottom of the page, occurs this 

 statement: 



Dr. D. S. Jordan, with the full cooperation of the Treasury Department, in 1896-97, 

 and Commerce and Labor up until 1912, is responsible for the killing of female seals 

 for their skins by the lessees of the seal islands of Alaska. 



Mr. McGuire. What are the facts with reference to this charge ? 



Mr. Clark. That is not true. Dr. Jordan had no authority over 

 the killing. 



The Chairman. I do not want to interrupt you ; but it says here 

 that Dr. Jordan was up there. Is that correct ? 



Air. Clark. He was up there in 1896 and 1897. 



At page 18, Volume I, of the report of Dr. Jordan's commission are 

 printed in full the instructions under which he acted in 1896-97. I 

 do not need to quote all. They can be read by this committee, if 

 necessary. But in the second paragraph of the tine print is this 

 statement: 



The principal object of this investigation is to determine by precise and detailed 

 observations, first, the present condition of the American fur-seal herd; second, the 

 nature and imminence of the causes, if any, which appear to threaten its extermina- 

 tion; third, what, if any, benefits have been secured to the herd through the operation 



