744 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



Mr. Elliott. I have got the quotations there, but I tell you that 

 the "small pups" are yearlings, because they are at the bottom of 

 the list. 



Mr. McGuire. I simply wanted to know whether it was your con- 

 clusion or a quotation. 



Mr. Elliott. Oh, no; I have got the quotations in the right places 

 on every point. 



This table of sizes and prices has prevailed since 1904, and shows 

 the immense pressure put upon the killing of all the large young male 

 seals on account of the prices obtained for the $60 or "small" skins; 

 the lessees paid as much tax as they did for the "small pups," and no 

 more; it was worth about $50 net, while the yearling skm was only 

 $20 net, for the lessees. 



Mr. Patton. There would not be any inducement to kill the small 

 ones if they could get big ones. 



Mr. Elliott. They got all the big ones and then they filled up with 

 small ones in order to get their quota. There were only 871 big ones 

 and they had to take the little ones to get the 12,000. There were 

 only 871 that brought more than $50. 



Mr. Patton. What is the next price ? 



Mr. Elliott. The next is $41. 



Mr. Patton. How many at $41. 



Mr. Elliott. They were "short 2-year-olds" and "long-yearlings." 



Mr. Patton. How many of them ? 



Mr. Elliott. 3,775. They brought $41. They did not bring $50. 



Mr. Patton. I did not say they did. I wanted to know how many 

 there were. 



Mr. Elliott. It is all clearly stated here. You gentlemen have 

 got to read these figures to understand them. I can not understand 

 them when they are being read. So I do not blame you. 



How many $50 skins did the Government get out of the 12,002 

 skins which it took on the Pribilof Islands in 1911? 



It secured just 1,522 such shins. 



How many $50 skins coidd it have secured in 1912? When out 

 of .3,764 skins it had only 993 such sTcins. And it had the whole 

 season to pick them out in; yet this poor showing of good 2-year-olds 

 and 3-year-olds was made ? 



Then, if this clear inability on the part of the agents of the Govern- 

 ment to get more than 993 $50 skins out of a selected 3,764 skins 

 taken during the whole season of 1912 has thus been declared by the 

 London sales of January 17, 1913, how in the name of sense could 

 these agents have secured 10,000 "S50 sJcins" out of the stock hauled 

 on the islands in 1913? I will leave that for Baron Munchausen to 

 argue out. 



If they had secured those young male seals — those $50 "large 

 pup" and •sinall*' skins — 10,000 of them, they would have "cleaned 

 up the hauling grounds" just as effectively as they did in 1909 when 

 Clark described the job then, as "whirlwind sealing." 



Yet Mr. Clark reads a long polemic to this committee in which he 

 repeats the stuff and fiction of "'fighting bulls" and "trampled pups" 

 just as though this libel upon the natural law which governs the life 

 of this wild animal had not been exposed, and its authors have not 

 all been properly removed from the island-! 



