682 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



Then, if that were true, how could he find any yearlings of either 

 sex to kill next year, and thereafter, and then "separate males from 

 the females" ? 



Think a moment of Dr. Jordan, a scientist, taking this self-confessed 

 nonsense and untruth as part of the basis of his report of 1898. 

 (At least his associate Clark swears that he (Jordan) did.) 



Think for a moment — if the Russians Trilled all these young gray 

 pup seals year after year, as Veniaminov is made to say they did, 

 there would not have been a seal on those islands years and years before 

 Veniaminov stepped on them for the first time, and his brief summer 

 visit of June- July, 1825. 



Mr. McGuire. Whose statement is this ? 



Mr. Elliott. Veniaminov's statement; and then I am commenting 

 on it. I have it here. 



Mr. McGuire. Go ahead; but I wish you would indicate when 

 you are quoting. 



Mr. Elliott. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I had good sensible reasons 

 for omitting that self-evident nonsense which is carried in Venia- 

 minov's story of killing all of the u 4 months old" pups annually on 

 the Seal Islands from 1800 to 1834. The natives on the Seal Islands, 

 who were the sons of those men who killed seals when Veniaminov 

 was on the ground in 1825, all denied to me this legend as given to 

 you by Jordan and Clark, and that is the reason why I omit the 

 untruthful and self-confessed nonsense of its relation. 



Now, in turn, I have never believed that the Russian killing spared 

 all the yearling females. I know that Veniaminov says they did. 

 But I know something of that sealing human nature and the environ- 

 ment of that driving and separating the sexes on the killing grounds, 

 as he describes it. But, on the other hand, I do know that the 

 "laasbuschie," or breeding grounds, of the Pribilov Islands were 

 never stepped upon from 1804 to date of Russian cession in 1867, 

 by the natives of those islands from the very day of first arrival of 

 the bulls and cows in May and July until their departure from them 

 in November following. 



The Chairman. You spoke about a report that was made in which 

 3*ou claimed they used a false translation. By whom were they 

 authorized to make a report ? 



Mr. Elliott. They were authorized by the Secretary of the 

 Treasury. 



The Chairman. I mean Clark and Jordan. 



Mr. Elliott. This was their report of the Fur Seal Investigations 

 Commission of 1S96 and 1S97; February 24, 1898. 



The Chairman. They were in the employ of the Government? 



Mr. Elliott. Oh. yes. This fact, as stated above by me, was not 

 the word of one native to me: it was the universal statement. It 

 was emphatically confirmed by Bishop Shaishnikov to me, September, 

 1S74. No one was better qualified to assert it than he, for he was 

 the son of the man who had the charge of all the R. A. Co.'s work on 

 the island of St. Paul from 1808 to 1854. 



Mr. Clark in his report of 1912 has this to say of his opinion of 

 Veniaminov as an "authority." lie says on page 29 (MS. report, 

 1912): 



