INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 58? 



Air. Clark. The sealskins were not worth $50 at the time that lease 

 was entered into. 



The Chairman. But after all do you not think it was a poor busi- 

 ness for us to have a contract where the Government received $10 

 for a skin and the company received from $28 to $60 a skin? 



Mr. Clark. I would not like to give an opinion on that. 



The Chairman. And would it not be a powerful inducement for the 

 leasing company to take all the seals they could get, from yearlings 

 on up to 4-year-olds ? 



Air. Clark. It certainly would be a profitable thing, but 



The Chairman (interposing). And considerations of that kind may 

 have caused you to say in your 1909 report that no seal was too small 

 for the company to take ? 



Air. Clark. The Government, however, had allowed them to take 

 15,000 seals 



The Chairman (interposing). Was that one of the considerations 

 that moved you to say that in your report ? 



Air. Clark. I want to say that my recommendation — — 



The Chairman (interposing). You can answer that yes or no and 

 then explain it. 



Air. Clark. No. 



The Chairman. That had nothing to do with it ? 



Air. Clark. Aly interest in the herd has been one from a scientific 

 point of view. I wanted, for example, to see the scientific problems 

 of the herd settled, and I complained about the killing of 1909 most 

 because it obscured a scientific fact which I would like to have settled. 

 I was not ignorant of or inattentive to the fact that the Government 

 could make more money by operating the seal islands on its own 

 account. 



The Chairman. One more question, Air. Clark. Whether the 

 company took, say, 3,000 seals or 6,000 seals on the islands, their 

 expense would practically be the same, would it not? 



Air. Clark. The company ? 



The Chairman. Yes. It would not cost the company much more 

 mone} T to take 6,000 seals than it would to take, say, half that number ? 



Air. Clark. Their plant being stationed there, I should say not; 

 they had their plant all equipped and they could not discharge their 

 men. 



Air. AIcGuire. There is just one other question I want to ask Mr. 

 Clark. There has been so much said about the various groups of 

 seals that the Alembers of the House of Representatives, when some 

 legislation was passed respecting the killing, seemed to be confused 

 as to the meaning of the terms "bachelors," " breeding cows," 

 " bulls, " and so forth. I wish you would group them during the 

 killing season and immediately afterwards as well as before they leave 

 the islands. For the information of the committee and the House 

 state what bulls mean, what bachelors mean, what breeding cows 

 mean, and so forth. 



Air. Clark. A breeding bull is an animal that has charge of a harem 

 of cows. An idle bull is an adult bull which has failed to get a harem; 

 he has been shut out and is a superfluous animal. His office is to take 

 the place of some active or harem bull which may become disabled 

 through accident or from any other cause. A young bull is a bull 



