832 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUE-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



It is conceded on all sides that the sex in young seals can not be told apart, without 

 physical examination, and that they are born equal in number. (See p. 182, hearing 

 No. 1.) 



In the iudgment of the committee, this raises a strong presumption that half of the 

 yearlings so taken were females, which is made a crime under the statute. 



This method of taking seals continued until the end of the killing season of 1909, the 

 termination of the lease. After that the business was conducted by the Government 

 under the direction of Hon. Charles Nagel, then Secretary of Commerce and Labor. 



VII. The committee finds that the taking of seals on the Pribilof Islands, under 

 the direction of former Secretary Charles Nagel, from 1910 to 1912, inclusive, was 

 conducted in the same manner, and by the same officials, as in the latter years of the 

 leasing company. Before the said Charles Nagel had full authority under law to take 

 seals on the islands and during the last year of the lease he was repeatedly notified of 

 the unlawful killing and depredations committed by the sealing company, and the 

 Government agents on the Pribilof Islands, specifically detailed to him, as done 

 during the years of 1906, 1907, and 1908; he was warned April 26, 1909, that they 

 would be guilty again, under his direction of the same conduct. This warning was 

 disregarded; the same leasing parties were on the islands in 1909, and took, in viola- 

 tion of law and regulation, 7,230 "small pups" and "extra small pupa," which were 

 yearlings, and exclusively the property of the Government. 



The committee further finds that the said Charles Nagel, on May 7, 1909, appointed 

 George A. Clark as a special expert assistant to visit the islands, examine conditions, 

 and make a report to the department, which he did September 30, 1909. In said 

 report the special assistant aforesaid states that yearlings are taken and "no seal is 

 too small to be killed," to wit: 



" It is on the killing field, however, that the great need of a guiding and controlling 

 hand is shown. In 1890-97 the Government agents ordered the drives. This season 

 they have been entirely in the hands of the lessees. The young males set aside for 

 breeding purposes having been marked, the lessees have been free to take what they 

 could get, and this resulted in their taking practically all of the bachelors appearing 

 on the hauling grounds. 



"* * * With a fixed legal quota, and a limited time in which to secure it from a 

 failing herd, there naturally results close, severe driving. In the eagerness to see that 

 no possible bachelor escapes, the edges of the rookies are encroached upon and cows 

 included in the drives. Fifty of them appeared in drives toward the close of this 

 season. A drive that can not be made without including cows should be omitted. 

 A drive which appears on the killing field with 15 to 20 cows in it should be released 

 rather than incur the danger of clubbing any such cow by mistake. There should be 

 some one in charge of the herd with power and discretion to do this. With a limited 

 killing season, however, this would be unfair to the lessees. There should also be 

 power and discretion to waive the limit and extend the time of killing if necessary. 



" There has been on the killing grounds since 1900aconstant struggle on the part of 

 the leasing company in the closing years of its concession to get every possible skin 

 from the declining herd. Its work has been aided by a high arbitrary legal quota and 

 by a lowered minimum weight of skin, enabling it to gradually anticipate the quotas 

 of succeeding years by killing younger animals. As a result there has occurred in 

 these years probably the closest killing to which the herd has ever been subjected. 

 Aside from the diminished supply of male life on the breeding grounds in 1904, this 

 is shown in the fact that though the herd has declined two-thirds in size, the quota has 

 never fallen more than one-third in size as compared with that of 1897. 



******* 



"During the present season and for some seasons past a minimum of 5 pounds has 

 been in force, the skins taken ranging in weight all the way from 4 to 14£ pounds, 

 bringing all classes of animals from yearlings to 4-year-olds into the quota. 



***** * * 



" A killingwasmadeat Halfway Pointasusual on thereturn trip. It yielded 32 skins. 

 Fifteen animals — young bulls — too large for killing and 9 shaved heads were exempted, 

 but no small seals whatever. As the end of the killing season approaches it is plain 

 that no seal is really too small to be killed. Skins of less than 5 pounds weight are 

 taken and also skins of 8 and 9 pounds. These latter are plainly animals which escaped 

 the killing of hist year because their heads were shaved. Otherwise it does not seem 

 clear how they did escape. * * *" (See hearing No. 1, pp. 104-105, 187-188, H. 

 Com. on Exps.. Dept. of Commerce. 



The committee further finds that the said Charles Nagel, disregarding the Clark 

 report, and substituting another report, by printing it, November, 1909. which denied 

 Mr. Clark's findings of fact, and all former notices in writing, of the illegal killing of 



