284 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



the tribunal that the destruction by the pelagic sealer has been exces- 

 sive, and the cutting off of one month of the sealing season in Bering 

 Sea clearly shows that it realized the danger to the herd from allowing 

 sealing there. Why, then, was sealing not prohibited altogether in 

 those waters? Is the danger less in August and a portion of Septem- 

 ber? The seals are still going long distances from the islands and the 

 sealer can continue his work until stopped by the September gales. 

 Bering Sea is the focal point, the great massing ground of seal life, and 

 the seals are more readily taken there than anywhere else. In 1891 the 

 catch of the Canadian fleet in the North Pacific was a little over 21,000 

 seals, and before the modus viveudi could be enforced a portion of the 

 fleet sealed from three to five weeks on the American side of Bering Sea, 

 and with fewer vessels and with fewer small boats they took in that time 

 as many seals as they had previously secured in the Pacific. During 

 the three years ending with and including 1891 the Canadian fleet (and 

 I only quote from Canadian records, because they are so reliable) took, 

 in five months, in the Korth Pacific, an average of 567 skins per vessel; 

 with ten vessels less, they took in Bering Sea 727 skins per vessel in 

 about two and one-half months. 



The proposed regulations still allow at least five weeks' sealing in 

 Bering Sea; but, say the regulations, the hunters can only use spears 

 in Bering Sea, thereby intimating that spears are less effective than the 

 shotguns allowed in the North Pacific, and that an additional safeguard 

 has therefore been provided in Bering Sea. Just why the shotgun is 

 pernicious in Bering Sea and is not in the North Pacific is not indicated; 

 but if we turn to the testimony of the Northwest Coast Indians, who 

 ship on the schooners and accompany them to Bering Sea, we find that 

 they claim that they can do better work with the spear than with the 

 shotgun. The latter makes the game wild, while the former does not. 

 The spear makes no noise, and they are thus able to take seal after seal 

 as they sleep on the water, and get all in sight, while at the sound of a 

 gun's discharge the comrades of the captured or wounded seal swim 

 away. 



It is evident from an inspection of these regulations as a whole that 

 the tribunal, taking into account the interests of both nations, endeavored 

 to frame measures which, while protecting the seals, would permit the 

 continuation of pelagic sealing. Tliis seems to me a task the accom- 

 plishment of which is an impossibility. The evils of pelagic sealing 

 appear to have been clearly recognized by the tribunal, but instead of 

 adopting prohibitive measures it took the middle course of throwing 

 some protection around the seals, and while at the same time appearing 

 to concede something to the pelagic sealers, made the conditions just 

 sufficiently hard as to prevent them from engaging successfully in the 

 business. It is admitted that these regulations possess value in limit- 

 ing and discouraging pelagic sealing, but their inherent weakness is 

 that while they now seem to possess some deterring power, changed 

 conditions may at any time arise which will negative their influence 

 and offer inducements sufficient to enable the sealers to again engage 

 in this business on a large and injurious scale. This contingency is 

 not so remote as may appear at first sight. In 1889 the average price 

 paid in Victoria for skins taken at sea was $6.83; in 1890 it had risen 

 to $10.70; in 1891 it was $15, In 1889 the cost of each skin in wages 

 was from $2 to $3; in 1890 and 1891 it was $3.50; in 1892 it was $4; 

 in other words, an advancing price for both master and hunter. 



Now, it is evident that it will be some time before the Pribilof Islands 

 can very greatly increase their annual output of skins. The maximum 



