INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 781 



The Chairman. You mean, for the skins they did not get ? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes; I suggested a rebate of that rental in propor- 

 tion to the catch they did not get; in other words, pay only one-third 

 of that rental. 



Mr. McGuire. Was that about the time of the expiration of the 

 lease ? 



Mr. Elliott. Oh, this was the new lease, and in the very first 

 months of their work; you see, I stopped them. 



Mr. McGuire. In 1890? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes; th.3y had not been on the islands only a few 

 weeks before I stopped thsm. 



Mr. McGuire. You were then in the employ of the Government? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes; under the authority of this special act, passed 

 April 5, 1890, and approved April 7. 



Mr. McGuire. Did you know that that rebate was made by the 

 Government ? 



Mr. Elliott. I have never followed that through, because the chain 

 of events that followed so swiftly after that, took me out entirely 

 from any connection with the Government, and five or six months 

 after that I was out of the service of the Government by my own 

 volition. 



Mr. McGuire. I will ask you if, as a matter of fact, you do not 

 know that it was paid and that the Government later recovered the 

 money ? 



Mr. Elliott. No; the Government did not recover the full rental. 

 I believe the Government finally took it into court, and that the 

 Government lost that claim for the entire rental, but did gain its 

 claim for the full skin tax and bonus; I never suggested that this skin 

 tax and bonus on each skin taken by them should be rebated — quite 

 to the contrary. 



Mr. McGuire. Does not the record show that the Government 

 won the case ? 



Mr. Elliott. No; they, the lessees, won on the rental. 



Mr. McGuire. I do not so understand. 



Mr. Elliott. But the Government won on the skin tax and bonus. 

 I speak from personal knowledge, because I came in contact with that 

 end of the business'. (See pp. 942, 943, 944, hearing No. 14,1912.) 



The Chairman. Well, the record speaks for itself. 



Mr. McGuire. Of course. Now, after you had made that recom- 

 mendation did you ever have any correspondence with representatives 

 of the company ? 



Mr. Elliott. Oh, yes; I had a good deal of correspondence with 

 Mr. Tevis in which I was urging him to drop this attempt to kill seals 

 and allow a closed time on the islands for seven years and remove his 

 people from there. I had quite a good deal of correspondence with 

 Mr. Tevis and Mr. Mills about that. 



Mr. McGuire. Was that all you corresponded with them about ? 



Mr. Elliott. That is all. It ran over 12 or 14 letters, and as 

 Mr. Tevis and Mr. Mills are dead, I do not want to bring those letters 

 in unless they choose to do it. 



Mr. McGuire. I will ask you whether vou wrote to Mr. Mills on 

 March 31, 1891? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes, I did. 



Mr. McGuire. Do you recall what you wrote about ? 



