115 



estimated that it could have continued permanently to furnish a return 

 of 100,000 furs a year; whicli, to say notliing of tlie public benefit, would 

 have yielded annually from this spot alone a very handsome sum to the 

 adventurers. But what do these men do? In two short years, 1821- 

 '22, so great is the rush that they destroy 320,000. They killed all and 

 spared none. The moment an animal lauded, though big with young, 

 it was destroyed. Those on shore were likewise inmiediately despatched, 

 though the cubs were but a day old. These of course all died, their 

 number, at the lowest calculation, exceeding 100,000. No wonder, then, 

 that at the end of the second year, the animals in this locality were 

 nearly extinct. So it is, we add, in other localities, and so with other 

 seals; so with the oil seals, and so with the wljale itself, every addition 

 only making bad worse. And all this might easily be prevented by a 

 little less barbarous and revolting cruelty, and a little more enlightened 

 selfishness. Fishermen are by law restrained as to the size of the 

 meshes of their nets in taking many of our more valuable fish; and in 

 the Island of Lobos, in the Eiver Plata, where, as we have seen, there 

 are quantities of seals, their extermination is prevented by the governor 

 of Montevideo, who farms out the trade under the restriction that the 

 hunters shall not take them but at stated periods, ages, etc. * * * 

 With regard to the seal fishery of the south the English and Ameri- 

 cans have exclusively divided it between them, and witli very great 

 profits. It has lately been stated that they together employ not fewer 

 than sixty vessels in the trade of from 250 to 300 tons burden. These 

 vessels are strongly built and have each six boats, like those of the 

 whalers, together with a small vessel of 40 tons which is put in requi- 

 sition when they reach the scene of their operations. Tlie crew con- 

 sists of about twenty-four hands ; their object frequently being to select 

 a certain fixed locality from which they make their various battues. 

 Thus it is very common for the ship to be moored in some secure bay 

 and to be partially unrigged, whilst, at the same time, the furnaces, 

 etc., required for making the oil are placed on shore. The little cut- 

 ter is then rigged and manned with about half the crew, who sail 

 about the neighboring islands, and send a few hands on shore when 

 they see seals, or where they wish to watch for them. This vessel can 

 bold about two hundred seals rudely cut up, which will yield about 

 lOU barrels of oil. This is transported to the headquarters and melted. 

 The campaign frequeiitly lasts for three years, and in the midst of 

 unheard of privations and dangers. Some of the crew are sometimes 

 left on distant barren spots, and the others being driven off by storms, 

 they iire left to perish or drag out for years a most precarious and 

 wretched existence. 



This evidence, from the highest English and French authorities, was 

 stated to the scientific world more than fifty years ago, as a plea for 

 the preservation of these valuable and docile animals. If we calculate 

 the values they would have added to commerce, had Great Britain 

 and the United States then agreed, as they do now, to adopt regula- 

 tions for their protection, we must reproach ourselves if tMs Tribunal 

 is not now equal to this important duty and if tlie regulations we adopt 

 are not effectual to stop this great wrong. 



