Excerpt from A Statement Submitted in Re the Fur-Seal Herd of Alaska: To the House Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: I desire to submit for your consideration a concise statement of facts, showing the history and condition of the fur-seal herd of Alaska, and the connection of the officers and stockholders of the North American Commercial Co., as lessees, and the officials of the United States Government and others therewith since 1890 to date. It is first in order to show how and why the fur-seal herd of Alaska has been commercially destroyed and ruined as an asset of value to the Government ever since 1890; I will lead by giving you a brief but carefully studied statement of the reasons why this herd has been reduced so as to be at the verge of complete extinction when the act of August 24, 1912, prevented that end. By order of this committee, a careful survey of the herd was made by Mr. Gallagher and myself last July. We have given you in our report of August 31 last an account in detail of its condition. The condition of this herd as we found it last July on its breeding rookeries of St. Paul and St. George Islands, Bering Sea, Alaska, is one of complete commercial ruin and of near extinction of virile breeding male life. Happily the act of August 24, 1912, prevents any repetition of the deadly killing of young male seals for the next five years on the islands, and makes it unnecessary to call upon Congress for any further legislation in the premises until the lapse of this close time thus provided for. It now becomes in order to clearly show how and why this herd of 4,700,000 seals in 1874 has been so managed by our own agents as to bring it to the pitiful limit of less than 1,500 breeding bulls in 1913, as contrasted with 90,000 in 1874 - with less than 30,000 non-breeding seals - yearlings and males, 2, 3, 4, 5, and up to 6 years old, against 1,250,000 of them in 1874, and less than 80,000 breeding cows as against 1,633,000 of them in 1874. It is an easy exhibition of cause which I am to give you, as follows: I. The fur seal by its law of life breeds but once a year, and then during one short period of that year only, viz, between July 4 and 25. II. This makes its order of life entirely different from cattle, sheep, horses, and swine, with which it has been erroneously contrasted by ignorant or scheming "naturalists," who have at great length declared it to be similar, when in fact it is utterly and irreconcilably different. III. That two weeks of the year (between July 4-25) in which all of the cows land, give birth to their young (a single pup), and are impregnated for another 12 months of gestation, is now admitted to be the "height of the season" by every observer who has had several seasons of personal study of the question on the rookeries. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.