harems 1870 and Comparisons of is the result of a decreased birth rate caused by 1890 irrelevant. pelagic sealing. The United States, however, deny that harems have increased "from four to eight times" over their size in 1870-1874. (Sec. 54.) The curtailment of H. W. Elliott's statement. Harems in 1891. Surplus of virile males. Mr. Henry W. Elliott, who is relied on as an authority in this matter by the Commissioners to show that the harems averaged from 5 to 20 cows in 1874 (Sec. 293), states, in the same passage from which the quotation used in the Report has been extracted, that there are many instances where 45 or 50 females are under the charge of one male," and he closes his sentence by stating that the average given is not entirely satisfactory to himself.1 This curtailment of Mr. Elliott's statement is in flagrant violation of the Commissioners' Letter of Instructions, in which Lord Salisbury says: "I need scarcely remind you that your investigation should be carried on with strict impartiality" (p. 2). The Report fails to give any testimony to show how many females constituted a harem in 1891, and makes the statement, wholly unsubstantiated by proof, that the harems have increased in size "from four to eight fold." (Sec. 54.) The present surplus of virile males has been fully treated of in the Case of the United States,2 United States Census Report, 1880, p. 36. males. in 1892. and a photograph taken by Mr. Stanley-Brown Surplus of virile in 1892, at the height of the breeding season, shows a number of vigorous bulls located on the breeding grounds unable to obtain consorts.1 On Size of harems July 19, 1892, Professor B. W. Evermann, of the United States Fish Commission, a well-known authority on subjects of natural history, counted the number of bulls, cows, and pups on a section of Lukannon Rookery, St. Paul Island, and the result was as follows: 13 bulls, 90 cows, and 211 pups. If each cow in a harem was represented by a pup, a pup, the average number to a bull would be 15, certainly not an excessive number even according to the Report. 2 in 1890. The Commissioners also rely on a newspaper Alleged summary of a report extract, which purports to be a summary of a re- by H. W. Elliott port made by Mr. Henry W. Elliott in 1890 to the Secretary of the Treasury, to establish several alleged facts (Sec. 832). One of these statements in this alleged summary (Sec. 433) is that there were 250,000 barren females on the Pribilof Islands in 1890 (Sec. 832, p. 40). This is cited by the Commissioners to show the lack of virile males on the rookeries in that year. An examination of the extract as published in volume J. Stanley-Brown, post p. 386. Alleged sum-III of the Appendix to the Case of Great Britain mary of a report in 1890. by H. W. Elliott (Parliamentry Paper C-6368, No. 2, 1891, p. 60) discloses the fact that this statement appears after the signature of Henry W. Elliott, and it can not, therefore, be construed as a portion of such report. Furthermore, how the Commissioners can question Mr. Elliott's power to compute the number of seals on the Islands, as they have done, and still rely at all on his computation as to the number of barren females needs explanation. Alleged recognition of decrease by lessees. The second mode by which they endeavor to British Comrs. Rept., p. 132. Appendix to Case of the United of Alaskan catch, ment of the Report that the standard of skins was lowered from time to time, implying an increasing scarcity of males (Sec. 694). In 1876 Average weights the average weight of all the skins of the Alaska 1876-1889. catch was 8 pounds, which remained about the average till 1886, the average weight being in that year 10% pounds; from that time, coincidentally with the increase of pelagic sealing, the weight dropped to 93 pounds in 1886, pounds in 1887, 8 pounds in 1888, and finally in 1889 to 700 pounds, the lowest standard ever reached.1 The United States, therefore, deny the statements made in the Report as to the reduction of the "standard of weights" (page 119, C).. 85 seals taken from The Commissioners also rely upon a statement The number of alleged to have been made to them by Mr. Northeast Point. Daniel Webster that, in 1874 and 1875, from 35,000 to 36,000 skins were taken from Northeast Point rookery and that, since 1879, from 29,000 to 18,000 skins only had been taken there, thus implying a large decrease in the seals resorting to this great rookery (Sec. 677). The annual killings on Northeast Point are combined in a table submitted herewith,' which gives the numbers annually taken thereon and the percent 1 Max Heilbronner, post p. 369 and table facing. seals taken from Northeast Point. The number of age to the whole number killed on St. Paul Island. From this table it appears that in 1873 26,369 seals were taken, being 34.9 per cent of the whole number; in 1874, 34,526, or 37.5 per cent; in 1875, 35,113, or 39 per cent; in 1888, 33,381, or 39.7 per cent; and in 1889, 28,794, or 33.9 per cent. The average percentage for the nineteen years during which the lease may be said to have been in operation (some 3,400 only having been taken the first year under the same) is 31.4. The Commissioners give the number taken in 1889 as 15,076, claiming the same to be from official records, but the citation given is to a report to the House of Representatives printed in 1876 (Sec. 677). Evidently this is a clerical error, but it deprives the United States of the opportunity to examine the authority intended to be cited. Alleged resort to reserved areas in 1879. The question of driving in 1879 from areas, before reserved and untouched, is used in the Report to show that the male seals had decreased to such an extent as to compel the resort to these hauling grounds. The Commissioners refer to this in the following words: "Whatever may have been the detailed history of the seal interests on St. Paul in the intervening years, the fact that in 1879 it became necessary for the first time to extend the area of driving, so as to in |