i 3 o THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



In 1872, the Alaska Company spent #100,000 in cash to popular- 

 ize Seal Fur in London. That was mistake the first. They ought 

 to have popularized the fur in America. 



By 1880, deep-sea sealing, or pelagic sealing, by means of long- 

 range rifles fired from ships, was taking more seals than the Com- 

 pany, whose catch had fallen to 8400 a year. 



By 1886, six foreign nations were engaged in pelagic sealing. 



By 1890, the North American Company succeeded the Alaska 

 Company as the renters of the Islands. The seal catch at sea 

 numbered this year 40,000. 



By 1891, the United States and England agreed — you recall 

 the term "Modus Vivendi" — to close Bering Sea to the poachers ; 

 but that did not prevent the poachers hanging on the verge of the 

 legal sixty-mile zone and potting the incoming and outgoing seals 

 cruising. 



By 1894, almost 62,000 seals were killed by the poachers. 



In 1895, 30,000 pups perished of starvation and almost 60,000 

 seals were shot by eighty different vessels poaching. The number 

 of seals legally killed was about 15,000. Hornaday says the cost of 

 patrolling, which did nothing to preserve seals and could do nothing, 

 had now totalled #2,000,000. (See his figure 130 — Natural His- 

 tory, Vol. I, or Dr. Evermann's Seal pamphlet of 1919.) 



By 1898, all American citizens were forbidden pelagic sealing; 

 so the poachers went to Japan and registered under the Japanese 

 flag. Up to this period, there were more American poachers than 

 Canadian. 



By 1910-1 1, there were not 200,000 Fur Seals alive ; but England 

 had #2,000,000 invested in Seal Dye works, which employed 3000 

 dye workers. 



Getting complicated, wasn't it ? And the seals kept on per- 

 ishing of starvation. Seal coats now cost #2000. The raw pelts, 

 ruined by promiscuous shooting and hurried, inexperienced skinning, 

 were bringing only #10 to #40 each, when they ought to have been 

 worth on the basis of retail price $200 each. The Japanese poachers 



