686 INVESTIGATION OF THE FTJR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



from his Zapieskie ob Ooonalashkenskaho Otdayla; St. Petersburg; 

 1842, to wit: 



On page 147, Monograph of the Seal Islands, is the following clear and positive state- 

 ments that the Russians did not kill males and females alike, as Clark asserts Venia- 

 minov is the "authority " for such statement. Veniaminov says: 



" There were eyewitnesses to the reason for this diminution of the seals, and it is only 

 -wonderful besides that they are still existing, as they have been treated almost without 

 mercy so many years. The cows produce only one pup each every year. They have 

 known deadly enemies and also are exposed to many foes unknown. From this killing 

 of the seals they steadily grew less. * * * On one occasion a drive was made of 

 15,000 male and female seals, but the night was dark and it was not practicable to 

 separate the cows from the males, and they were therefore allowed to stand over until 

 daylight should come. The men put in charge of the herding of the drove were care- 

 less, and the seals took advantage of this 'negligence,' etc., and 'escaped,' etc." 



If Veniaminov is "authority/' then take him as such when he tells 

 you that this drive of "15,000 male and female seals" was to be 

 separated "cows from males" before killing. That this was a drive 

 of "yearlings" or "small pup" seals goes without saying. It was not 

 a "heterogeneous mass of cows, bulls, and pups" driven up from a 

 "breeding rookery," as Clark has untruthfully declared Veniaminov's 

 meaning to be; they were yearlings from the hauling ground, just as 

 they were driven under Clark's eyes in 1909, and which he has so 

 well described in his 1909 report! 



There was no separation of those yearling seals under his eyes, or 

 under any other man's eyes. That was what Veniaminov was crying 

 out against here; that is the "cruel and wicked treatment" that these 

 seals were receiving from the Russians in 1804-1834, as Veniaminov 

 asserts, just as our seals received it from the lessees under Mr. Clark's 

 eyes in 1909; that is what the old Bishop was talking about. 



Since the truth should be known now to your committee, as to what 

 that early Russian record of killing was on the islands, I will insert 

 here as part of my sworn testimony the following record of it given to 

 me at Oonalashka, in 1S74, by Kazaen Shaishnikov's son, Bishop 

 Innokenty : 



Shaishnikov is the man who had charge of all this Russian killing 

 on St. Paul Island from 1808 to the year of his death thereon, in 1854. 

 This record given to me, as quoted below, I desired to incorporate in 

 my Mono. Seal Islands, 10th Census U. S. A., 1881, but the censor of 

 that publication limited me to 175 pages. I could not get it in, and 

 so it was omitted, together with much more data which I wished to 

 print. I submitted the following copy to the House Committee on 

 Foreign Affairs, January 4, 1912, and it comes in now at this point 

 exactly right to make the record clear as to what Veniaminov realty 

 did see and meant to publish. 



Mr. Watkins. Where did Veniaminov get his information — from 

 personal knowledge or from what he learned from other people? 



Mr. Elliott. "Well, he had gotten it from all round. He was on 

 the islands a few weeks in 1825. He came there in June, consecrated 

 a church, and went away on the R. A. Co.'- sailing vessel that left 

 early in September. This is a mixture of truth and romance which 

 he rolls up in a chapter of his OonalesJikenslcabo Otda/yla, St. Peters- 

 burg, 181$. 



Now, Mr. Chairman, I want to insert right here, the statement that I 

 made before the Hou>e Committee on Foreign Affairs, January 4, 

 1912. by incorporating my original notes as published in this hearing. 



