ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 195 



and shipped to Canton. ' Captain Scammon states that the sealing fleet off the 

 coast of Chile in 1801 amounted to thirty vessels, many of which were ships of the 

 larger class, and nearly all carried the American flag. Notwithstanding this great 

 slaughter, it appears that fur seals continued to exist there as late as 1815, when 

 Captain Fanning again obtained them at this island.' 



In the year 1800 the fur-seal business appears to have been at its height at the 

 Georgian Islands, where, in the single season, 112,000 fur seals are reported to 

 have "been taken, of which 57,000 were secured by a single American vessel (the 

 Aspasia, under Captain Fanning). Vancouver, at about this date, reported the 

 existence of large numbers of fur seals on the southwest coast of New Holland. 

 Attention was at once turned to this new field, and in 1804 the brig Union, ot New 

 York, Capt. Isaac Pendleton, visited this part of the Australian coast, but not 

 finding these animals there in satisfactory numbers, repaired to Border's Island, 

 where he secured only part of a cargo (14,000 skins), owing to the lateness of the 

 season. Later 60,000 were obtained at Antipodes Island. About 1806 the Ameri- 

 can ship Catharine, of New York (Capt. H. Fanning), visited the Crozette Islands, 

 where they landed, and found vast numbers of fur seals, but obtained their cargo 

 from Prince Edward Island, situated a few hundred miles southeast of the Cape 

 of Good Hope, where other vessels the same year obtained full cargoes. 



In 1830 the supply of fur seals in the southern seas had so greatly decreased that 

 the vessels engaged in this enterprise ' ' generally made losing voyages, from the 

 fact that those places which were the resort of seals,'" says Capt. Benjamin Pen- 

 dleton, " had been abandoned by them or cut off from them." so that the discovery 

 of nevv' sealing grounds was needed. Undiscovered resorts were believed to exist, 

 from the fact that large numbers of fur seals were seen while cruising far out at 

 sea, which must repair once a year to some favorite breeding station.-' 



Captain Weddell states that during the years 1820 and 1821 over 300,000 fur seals 

 were taken at the South Shetland Islands alone, and that at the end of the second 

 year the species had there become almost exterminated. In addition to the num- 

 ber killed for their furs, he estimates that not less than 100,000 newly-born young 

 died in consequence of the destruction of their mothers. 



So indiscriminate was the slaughter that whenever a seal reached the beach, of 

 whatever denomination, it was immediately killed. Mr. Scott states, on the 

 authority of Mr. Morris, an experienced sealer, that a like indiscriminate killing 

 was carried 07i at Antipodes Island, off the coast of New South Wales, from which 

 island alone not less than 400,000 skins were obtained during the years 1814 and 

 1815. A single ship is said to have taken home 100,000 in bulk, which, through 

 lack of care in curing, spoiled on the way, and on the arrival of the ship in Lon- 

 don the skins were dug out of the hold and sold as manure! At about the same 

 time there was a similar wasteful and indiscriminate slaiighter of fur seals at the 

 Aleutian Islands, whei-e for some years they were killed at the rate of 200,000 a 

 year, glutting the market to such an extent that the skins did not bring enough to 

 defray the expenses of transportation. Later, the destruction of fur seals at these 

 islands was placed under rigid restrictions (see infra the general history of the 

 northern fur seal), in consequence of which undue decrease has been wisely pre- 

 vented. But nowhere else has there been a systematic i^rotection of the fur seals 

 or any measures taken to prevent wasteful or undue destruction. 



The subject in 1873.— The above embodies Allen's gleaning of all 

 tliat he conld learn touching the siil^ject. In 1873 I published the 

 following : 



The Government of Buenos Ayres has, from the first, protected and cared for a 

 small rookery of fur seals under the bluffs at Cabo Corrientes, on its coast, where 

 some 5,000 to 8,000 are annually taken, but the seals here have no hauling grounds 

 like those on St. Paul; they are taken with much labor under the high cliffs of this 

 portion of the coast. This is the onlj^ government aid and care that the seals have 

 ever received outside of Bering Sea. The following extract shows the way in 

 which the fur seals of the south came into notice: 



"Soon after Captain Cook's voyage in the Resolution, performed in 1771, he pre- 

 sented an official report concerning New Georgia, in which he gave an account of 

 the great number of elephant seals and fur seals which he had found on the shores 

 of that island. This induced several enterprising merchants to fit out vessels to 



' Fanning: Voyages to the South Sea, etc., p. 364. Allen: North American 

 Pinnipeds, 

 -lb., p. 299. 

 " Fanning: Voyages, p. 487. 



