PELAGIC SEALING A SPECULATION. 597 



The expenses of a sealing trip in the Bering are, for a four months' 

 cruise : 



Captain, wages, at $100 $400 



Ten seamen, at $35 per month 1,400 



Five ordinary seamen or boys, at $20 per month 400 



Paid to hunters, at $2 per skin, 1, 600 an aetual average 3, 200 



5,400 

 Total expense and outfit 7, 460 



As the hunters are paid by the skin, the expenses would be more if 

 the catch was larger. The expense of a six-boat schooner would be 

 proportionately greater as it would be if the cruise was made longer. 

 Milu's estimate in his report to the governor-general of Canada is 

 based on a longer cruise in a large schooner, and is no doubt a fair 

 estimate. 



Still, the actual expenses of a schooner can not be figured accurately 

 except by the owner, who charges every item of expense against her as 

 it is paid out, and the figures I have given only serve as an approxi- 

 mate guide to the average profits of a sealing trip. According to Mr. 

 Miln's estimate, a big schooner catching 2,000 seals (an observedly high 

 estimate) would make a profit of $4,440 on her trip if the skins sold for 

 $7.50 each, and he adds that she could catch 3,000 skins if undisturbed 

 by a United States revenue cruiser, and if she could, two things would 

 happen — skins would drop to next to nothing in value, and there would 

 be no seals next year. 



The average market value of seal- skins taken in the water as com- 

 pared witli that of animals properly selected on 

 the seal islands, either of Alaska or Siberia, is Isaac Liebes, p. 453. 

 ab( >ut one-third. The former are mostly pregnant 



cows, the fur of which is thin and poor, compared with the males, and 

 the skins are riddled more or less with bullets and buckshot, making 

 them practically unfit for first-class garments. 



In ascertaining the value of the vessels that have been seized by the 

 United States Government for illegal sealing in 



the Bering Sea I got the record of actual sales 50 f' eo - T ' mniam *> P- 

 in every case where the vessel had changed hands 



during the past six years. Many of the schooners were bought by 

 their last owners at private sale, but others had been sold at auction. 

 The seized schooners belonging to Boscowitz and Warren were all 

 sold at auction in the year 1885, and were bought in by a party in the 

 interest of Boscowitz for $1 each above the lien on them. No one bid 

 higher than that, for the excellent reason that the lien represented in 

 every case the full value of the boat and outfit, and was given by War- 

 ren, in whose name the boats stood, to secure Boscowitz, who, being an 

 American, could not legally own an interest in boats sailing under the 

 British flag. I append a certified copy of the sale of these vessels at 

 jHiblic auction in Victoria in 1885. 



