ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 321 



as reported iu the United States and British Cohimbia custom-houses 

 as 121,143, I stated, liowever, that it was known that a large number 

 of skins were transshipped in Japan ports and sent to London by way of 

 the Suez Canal. Eeliable information as to the sale of fur-seal skins 

 in London for the season of 1891 discloses that 138,323 skins, taken at 

 sea in the ISTorth Pacific Ocean from the American and Russian or 

 Japanese herds during the season of 1894, were sold in London. Care- 

 ful estimates show that about 3,000 were retained in the United States 

 for dressing and dyeing, making a total of 141,323. To this should be 

 added about 800 which were known to have been on a vessel believed 

 to have been lost, making the total about 142,000. Of this amount 

 55,G8G were taken within the area covered by the Paris award. 



The following table gives the number of skins taken within said 

 Paris award area during the years 1890 and 1894, inclusive: 



1890 40,809 



1891 45,941 



1892 46,642 



1893 28,613 



1894 55,686 



It would be within moderate bounds to state that these figures of 

 seals killed and recovered represent only about one-third of all killed, 

 but whose bodies were not recovered. 



A perusal of these figures must satisfy the most skeptical that the 

 fur-seal herd will be speedily exterminated unless an immediate change 

 is made in the scope as well as the form of the award. 



So far as the articles of the award relating to the IS'orth Pacific 

 Ocean, exclusive of Bering Sea, are concerned, forbidding all seal fish- 

 ing from May to August,"it must be admitted much good has been 

 accomplished, and favorable results were apparent on the islands early 

 in the season. The fatal defect in the scope of the award, however, 

 was iu opening Bering Sea during August and September to sealers, 

 l)rohibiting only therein the use of firearms. It has been claimed, and 

 with some evidence in its favor, that the spear is as destructive in Ber- 

 ing Sea as the shotgun. Some experts believe that even greater 

 destruction is accomplished iu Bering Sea by the use of the spear thau 

 by guus, for the reason that the noise of the shotguns frightens away 

 many seals who might be easily killed sleeping on the water by spears- 

 men. While the herd is traveling in the North Pacific Ocean away 

 from the islands it is very difficult to kill seals with spears, as they are 

 constantly traveling and rarely found asleep on the water. In Bering 

 Sea, however, the females leave their pups on the islands and go out 

 for a distance of 100 or 200 miles from the islands, far beyond the pro- 

 hibited zone of GO miles, to feed. They are there found in large num- 

 bers asleep on the water, and can easily be killed by the silent, skillful 

 si)earsmen. The large number of pups found dead from starvation on 

 the islands during the latter part of September and October, 1894 — 

 12,000 by actual count on the accessible parts of the rookeries, and 

 20,000 by careful estimates— shows the destructive effect of permitting 

 sealing at all iu Bering Sea. Should Bering Sea be forever closed to 

 pelagic sealers, and should the closed season now provided by the 

 award in the North Pacific Ocean be maintained, the Department 

 believes that the seals would receive fair protection, and that fur-seal 

 fishing might continue to be a profitable one, both on land and on sea. 

 Unless this limitation in the scope of the award be made, within a very 

 few years at the most the seals will be exterminated commercially and 

 the industry destroyed. 



H. Doc. 92, pt. 2 21 



