722 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA, 



(See Report Fur-Seal Investigations: Part 3, p. 337, Feb. 24, 1898.) 

 1905: Now we will take a jump over all the testimony given by= 

 Chief Special Agent Goff's successors, who hav^e reported in turn 

 just as he has so faithfully stated as to the appearance of the yearlings 

 on the hauling grounds during June and July, annually, to the associate 

 and confederate of Mr. George A. Clark in 1912-13, Chief Special 

 Agent W. I. Lembkey, who under date of October 26, 1905, officially 

 reports to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, to wit: 



Special attention was paid by me to the presence of yearlings in the drives. The 

 first seen was on June 28. * * * On July 1 there were three yearlings seals. 

 * * * On July 5 there were yearling seals. * * * Only July 25 several year- 

 lings. * * * On the last drive made on August 9 a larger number. 



(See S. Doc. No. 98, 59th Cong., 1st sess., p. 24.) 



And in another place Chief Special Agent Lembkey says the year- 

 lings "returned in a mass" between the 20th and 25th of July. So 

 if he saw several yearlings on July 25, he told the truth, but how 

 many more he did not say. But they were there all right, June 28. 



Mr. Stephens. You mean they were on the hauling grounds ? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes; where he was driving seals from to kill. 



1904: Also, Chief Special Agent Lembkey, in 1904, makes certain 

 that female 3'earlings are in these killing drives winch he is making in 

 July, to wit: 



On July 1 there were three yearling seals in the drives at North East Point. One of 

 them, a typical specimen, was knocked down at my direction, to ascertain the weight 

 of the skin. It was found to be a female. 



Special attention was paid by me to the presence of yearlings in the drives. The 

 first seen was on June 28 in a drive from Zapadnie. It was so small that it was killed to 

 determine its weight. It was a male. * * * (Rept. W. I. Lembkey, Sept. 1, 1904, 

 p. 77, App. A, H. Com. Exp. Dept. Com. and Labor, June 24, 1911.) 



There you are. Males and females together; no mistake about it; 

 no doubt about it. He killed them; he examined them and he reported 

 their presence. 



Mr. Patton. But he did not report any great numbers of them? 



Mr. Elliott. No. But the London returns fixed the numbers. 

 If the gentleman from Pennsylvania had been here yesterday he 

 would understand the point I am making, and he will, when he reads 

 the testimony that was put in here. 



Mr. Patton. I will read the evidence and see whether I do under- 

 stand. 



Mr. Elliott. And the evidence yesterday, would have stopped that 

 question in a moment. 



Now, Mr. Chairman, I will take up another point which is in 

 order at this juncture. Mr. Clark has made a "discovery," July 24, 

 1913, and learned for the first time then, that yearlings do not 

 annually return to the islands during June and July in any note- 

 worthy numbers. He brands pups in September, 1912, with red-hot 

 irons on the tops of their heads, and then he can not find them on 

 the hauling grounds in 1913, when he searches for them in July. 



He gives us the following report of his work thus, beginning 

 September 7, 1912, to wit: 



Clark burns with red-hot irons, the tender tops of the heads of 

 two-months-old seal pups, September 7, 1912. 



The process of branding is very simple. The older natives held the small group 

 of pups after it had been surrounded in a loose fashion, merely to prevent the animals 

 getting away. A dozen young men in two groups catch the pups, carrying them 



