122 



and ill disposing of tlie carcasses and salting and stowing tlie pelts. 

 These crews, allowing 10 men and oflicers to each vessel, though the 

 numbers were much greater, numbered 1,220; in all, 3,220 men. I 

 place this estimate below that of both Governments because I believe 

 that is a full allowance of the men needed, and this business requires 

 no great investment of capital to make it profitable. 



Each hunter has a rifle, and a double-barreled shotgun, and takes 

 100 rounds of ammunition on each excursion from the ship, which he 

 usually expends in a day's work. The guns are breech-loading, rapid- 

 firing weapons, and have fixed ammunition, made waterproof; and are 

 fired by the impact of the hammer upon an explosive that is fixed in 

 the base of each cartridge. The powder and the explosive for igniting 

 it are charged into a copper cup or cylinder that forms the base of the 

 cartridge, and the lead is imbedded in the cylinder, in front of the 

 powder. A slight flange around the exterior of this cylinder at its 

 base prevents its escape from the gun in firing, and when it is emptied 

 a very simple contrivance removes the shell from the breach of the gun. 

 Fifteen buckshot, each a deadly missile, is usually the charge of lead 

 placed in each cylinder cartridge, and if a hunter fires 100 shots in a 

 day, he discharges 1,500 of these missiles at, or into, the seals. 



In 10 days of good sealing in the North Pacific out of 60, the single 

 hunter would fire 15,000 deadly shots at close range; and in 15 days 

 out of 90, in the Bering Sea, he would fire 22,500 deadly missiles at or 

 into the seals, even under the more apparently forbearing and humane 

 scheme of regulations offered by Sir John Thompson. But under the 

 British scheme his opportunities would be much greater. In a seal- 

 ing campaign of two months in the North Pacific and three months in 

 Bering Sea — continuous months — the single hunter, during twenty-five 

 days of good sealing out of one hundred and fifty -three days (Sundays 

 included), would fire at and into the seals 37,500 deadly cartridges. 

 One hunter with that opportunity, if he was moderately skilled in 

 shooting seals, would destroy 2,000 or more seals in 153 days of hunt- 

 ing. 



It is idle to suppose that out of 153 days of hunting he would not 

 fiud 25 days of good sealing, in which he would fire 100 shots each day. 

 The average for the entire period would be 24 shots each day for each 

 hunter. Now multiply these figures by the number of hunters in the 

 entire fleet of 122 vessels — 967, and in the 25 days of good sealing 

 weather out of the 153 days spent in the North Pacific and Bering 



