INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 695 



Under date of January 3, 1914, he addressed letters to Senators 

 and to Members of Congress, a copy of one of which I submit to the 

 committee, as follows : 



Leland Stanford Junior University, 



Office of the President, 

 Stanford University, Gal., Januarys, 1914. 



Hon. W. S. Goodwin, 



House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. 

 My Dear Sir: In February, 1912, you made a speech in connection with the fur- 

 seal bill in which you asserted very strongly that the Russians never killed female 

 fur seals; that in fact they held the females and the breeding grounds in a sort of 

 reverential awe. Your views were undoubtedly drawn from a statement of Russians, 

 conditions which Mr. Henrv W. Elliott has many times placed on record. In a recent- 

 report on his investigations last summer Mr. Elliott has reasserted the claim that the 

 Russians never killed anvthing but males. See Proposition I, page 36, of his 1913 

 report. He has still more" recently sent to the president's office here a further reitera- 

 tion of this claim, charging Dr. Jordan with falsification of records when he in 1896. 

 attributed the failure of the herd in 1834 to killing of females. In Dr. Jordan's absence. 

 I have answered Mr. Elliott's charge, and thinking that it may be of interest to you 1 

 am sending herewith a copy of Mr. Elliott's charge and my answer. 

 Very truly, yours, 



Georoe A. Clark, Secretary, 



Inclosures. 



I will not read it, but Mr. Clark makes a typewritten copy, commenc- 

 ing on page 185 of hearing Xo. 1, January 17, 1914, and carries that 

 typewritten cop}- over to the base of page 186. I will not read that 

 because it is just copied exactly as I have got it here, to wit: 



DR. JORDAN DELIBERATELY FALSIFIES THE RUSSIAN RECORD IN RE NOT KILLING 



FEMALE SEALS. 



Dr. Jordan had full knowledge of the fact that the Russian killing of seals from the 

 time the old Russian-American company took charge of the Pribilof herd in ISOO, 

 up to the day we received it from them in 1867, never permitted the killing of female 

 seals. He, with that full knowledge in his possession, after holding it for nearly two 

 years, has the following untruthful statement to finally report under date of February 

 24, 1898, relative to the conduct of this work of killing seals by the Russian manage- 

 ment of the herd, to wit: 



On page 25, "Fur Seal Investigation: Part I, 1898," under head of "The company's- 

 management," he says: 



"At once upon assuming control of the Islands, the Russian-American company 

 put a stop to the ruthless slaughter which threatened the fur-seal herds with destruc- 

 tion. * * * They still continued to kill males and females alike. The injury to- 

 the herd naturally continued * * *." 



That Dr. Jordan could make such a statement in distinct denial of the only author- 

 ity which he has used, and knows, is hard to believe, when on page 222, following, of 

 this same report above cited, part 3, appears the following translation of Bishop 

 Yeniaminov's account of this killing, which was originally published in St. Peters- 

 burg, 1839, by Von Baer, to wit: 



"The taking of fur seals commenced in the latter days of September. * * * The 

 siekatchie (bulls) and old females (i. e., two years and older) having been removed, 

 the others are divided into small squads and are carefully driven to the place where 

 they are to be killed, sometimes more than 10 versts distant. * * * 



"When brought to the killing grounds, they are rested for an hour or more, accord- 

 ing to circumstances, and then killed with a club. * * * Of those 1 year old, the 

 males are separated from the females, and killed, the latter are driven carefully back 

 to the beach." 



Here is the explicit, clear cut, statement made by Veniaminov, who, writing in 1825, 

 after a season spent on St. Pauls Island, denies Dr. Jordan's assertion that the Rus- 

 sians killed male and female ssals alike, and that that killing of females destroyed 

 the herd. 



