544 IN THE PRESENT. 



caught in tlie open Pacific and Bering Sea, exclusively, by what are 

 known as poaching vessels, and are distinguished from the Alaska catch 

 by the fact that they arc all pierced by bullet, buckshot, or spear, and 

 are almost all females. 



The seal life of to-day available for commercial purposes is centered 

 in three localities. 



(1) The Lobos Islands, situated in the mouth of the river La Plata, 



owned and controlled by the Uruguay Republic 

 C. A. Williams, p. 542. and by that Government leased to private parties 

 for the sum of $G,000 per annum and some stipu- 

 lated charges. The annual product in skins is about 12,000. 



The skins are of rather inferior quality. Insufficient restrictions are 

 placed upon the lessees in regard to the number of skins permitted to 

 be taken annually, consequently there is some waste ot life; neverthe- 

 less, the measure of protection allowed has insured the preservation of 

 the "rookery," and will continue so to do. 



(2) Kommandorski Couplet, which consists of the islands of Copper 

 and Bering, near the coast of Kamchatka, in that portion of Bering 

 Sea pertaining to Eussia. These islands yield about 40,000 skins per 

 annum of good quality, and are guarded by carefully restrictive rules 

 as to tlte killing of seal, analogous to the statutes of the United States 

 relative to the same subject. 



The right to take seals upon them is leased by the Russian Govern- 

 ment to an association of American citizens, who also hold the lease 

 of the islands belonging to the United States, and are thus enabled to 

 control and direct the business in fur-seal skins for the common advan- 

 tage and benefit of all parties in interest. These islands can hardly be 

 said to have been " worked" at all for salted seal skins prior to the ces- 

 sion of Alaska by Russia to the United States, and the United States 

 Government now profits by the industry to the extent of the duty of 20 

 per cent collected on the "dressed skins" returned to this country from 

 the London market. Eroin 1873 to 1887, inclusive, this return has 

 been 121,275 skins. 



(;5) The Pribilof group consists of the islands of St. Paul and St. 

 George, and is a Government reservation in that part of Bering Sea 

 ceded to the United States by Russia, together with and apart of 

 Alaska. So exhaustive an account of these islands and their seal life 

 has been given by Mr. H. W. Elliott, special agent of the Treasury 

 Department in 1874, and since intimately connected with the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, which account has been made a part of Tenth Census 

 Report, that it would be intrusive here to attempt to supplement aught, 

 and therefore only generalizations based on said report, and such state- 

 ments of life and procedure on the islands to-day are presented as may 

 be pertinent in this connection. 



These islands are places of annual resort for the largest herd of fur 

 seal the world has ever known, and the only one of great importance 

 now existing. After most careful examination, Mr. Elliott estimated 

 their numbers at over 4,500,000. After a thorough study of the influ- 

 ences which act for or against the increase or diminution of the life of 

 this vast body, taking into account the killing of 100,000 annually for 

 their skins, Mr. Elliott says: "1 have no hesitation in saying quite con- 

 fidently that under the present rules and regulations governing the 

 sealing interest on these islands, the increase or the diminution of the 

 life wdl amount to nothing; that the seals will continue for all time 



