The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-04-12
WICKED AGENT rINGLE.
The Gross Frauds He Perpetrated
Regard 70 Seals.

The Gross Frauds He Perpetratcd In
Regard 20 Seals.
WASHINGTON CfTY, April Especial
Correspondencc.l- THE settlement of our
troubles with the English in regard to
the seal question will probably be
settled by the visit of the agents of
both parties to Alaska this sum-
mer. The chief American, as far as
knowledge goes, in this expedition, win be
Mr.. Henry w. Elliott, of the Smithsonian
Institution. lHe knows more about seals
and Alaska than any man in the world
He made his first trip to Alaska in the EN-
ploy of the Western Union Telegraph
company, when he went north with George
KEENAN, and others to lay a line Of teIe-
graph wire across Bering straits and oyer
Siberia to Europe. The Atlantic cable de-
fcated the project and brought him back
to this country; but the exploring party
was so far away at the time that the cable
was completed, that il took three years
before the news of 1t reached them. About
sixteen years ago Mr.. Elliott was again
in Alaska. this time the agent
of the government. and he then
made thorough study of the seal trade.
seals, pictures of their breeding grounds.
and, upon returning to America, wrote q
book which is now the standing authority
on Alaska. Mr.. Elliott is an artist, as wei
as an able writer and explorer, and the
pictures which he brought back in 1872
gave an accurate idea Of the extent of the
seal industry. During the past summer
he was again sent to Alaska. and he has
just returned, bringing with him pictures
of the breeding grounds of the seals as they
are today, and these being compared with
the pictures of the same places in 1872,
show that the seals are on a fair way to ex-
termination, and that if something is not
at once done, the time will soon come
when they will be as extinct as the buffalo
is today. Mr.. Elliott has unearthed
the fraud which George X. Tingle, an
agent of the treasury department, per-
petrated on the government, and
which may result in international
complications between US and England.
This man Tingle has for years been send
reports that the English base their claims
that the seals are not being destroyed, and
thereby apparently set the better OF Mr..
Blainei in correspondence with the British
government. Whether Tingle was in the
pay of the British government. or whether
he was in the pay of poachers or of the
new seal company, of which he is now one
of the chief officers. it is impossible TO
know, but il Mr.. Elliott's report is correct,
he has proven false To the government and
to the treasury department. and has sold
out this country as much as Benedict
Arnold did during the Revolutionary war.
The truth of the matter is that there were
in 1877 about 100000 killable seals
and that there are now about 6o,ooo.
We have the most stringent laws against
the killing of females. and il is only the
Young males which can be killed for furs.
When Mr.. Elliott was in Alaska, in ISL.
there were !, TOO, 900 breeding females, and
there are now about $4,000. There were
then Iao.00o breeding bulls, and these have
now fallen down 10 5000 Mr.. Elliott's
pictures show that the breeding grounds
are now almost deserted by seals, and he
proves conclusively that this great indus
try is being wiped out. The result will be
that seal skins will be higher than ever,
and that unless something Is done this
summer the wearing OF seal skin saeques
will be confined to the wives of kings and
millionaires.
FRANK G.. CsarENrER.