ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 5 



above the tropics nothing that resembles tliem. Their range in the 

 North Pacilic is virtnally confined to fonr islands in Bering Sea, 

 namely, St. Paul and St. George of the tiny Pribilof group, and 

 Bering and Copper of the Commander Islands, large in area, but 

 relatively scant in seal life. 



The remarkable discrepancy which we have alluded to may be better 

 understood when we consider that these animals require certain con- 

 ditions of landing and breeding ground and climate, all combined, for 

 their perfect life and reproduction. In the North Atlantic no suitable 

 territory for their reception exists or ever did exist; and really noth- 

 ing in the North Pacific beyond what we have designated in Bering 

 Sea will answer the requirements of tlie fur seal. When we look over 

 the Antarctic waters, we are surprised at what might have been done, 

 and should have been done, in those southern oceans. There we find 

 hundreds of miles of the finest seal-breeding grounds on the western 

 coast of Patagonia, the beautiful i-eaclies of the Falkland Islands, the 

 great extent of Desolation Island, together with the whole host of 

 smaller islets, where these animals abounded in almost countless 

 numbers when first discovered, and should abound to-day — millions 

 upon millions — but which have been, through nearly a century, the 

 victims of indiscriminate slaughter, directed by most unscrupulous 

 and most energetic men. It seems well-nigh incredible, but it is true, 

 nevertheless, that for more than fifty years a large fleet, numbering 

 more than sixty sail and carrj'ing thousands of active men, traversed 

 this coast and circumnavigated every island and islet, annually 

 slaughtering right and left wherever the seal life was found. Ships 

 were laden to the water's edge with the fresh, air-dried, and salted 

 skins, and they were swallowed up in the marts of the world, Ijringing 

 mere nominal prices — the markets glutted, but the butchery never 

 stopping. 



The seal grounds in the Southern Hemisphere. — I will pass 

 in brief review the seal grounds of the Southern Hemisphere. The 

 Galapagos Islands come first in our purview. This scattered group of 

 small rocks and islets, uninhabited and entirely arid, was fifty years 

 ago resorted to by a very considerable number of these animals, Arc- 

 tocephalus australis, together with many sea lions, Otaria hookeri. 

 Great numbers were then captured by fur sealers, who found to their 

 sorrow when the skins were inspected that pelage was poor and worth- 

 less. A few survivors, however, remain to this day. 



Along and off the coast of Chile and Bolivia are the St. Felix and 

 Juan Fernandez islands, the latter place being one of the most cele- 

 brated rookeries known to Antarctic sealers. The west coast of Pata- 

 gonia and a portion of that of Terra del Fuego was in those early days 

 of seal liunting, and is to-day, the finest connected range of seal-rookery 

 ground in the south. Here was annually made the concentrated attack 

 of that sealing fleet referred to; and one can readily understand how 

 thorough must have been the labor, as he studies the great extent and 

 deep indentation of this coast, its thousand and one islands and islets, 

 and when he sees to-day that there is scarcely a rookery of fur seals 

 known to exist there. The Falkland Islands, just abreast of the Straits 

 of Magellan, were also celebrated, and a favorite resort, not only of 

 the sealers, but of the whale fleets of the world. They are recorded, 

 in the brief mention made by the best authority, as fairly swarming 

 with fur seals when they were opened up by Captain Cook. There 

 is to-day, in the place of the millions that once existed, an insignificant 

 number, taken notice of only now and then. 



