6 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



annually, laden with enormous cargoes of fur-seal skins; yet, as above mentioned, hardly a definite line of record 

 has been made in regard to the whole transaction, involving, as it did, so much labor and so much capital. 



Former publications of the "writer. — A brief digest of the writer's notes, relating principally to the 

 business on the islands, was prepared and given to the Treasury Department in 1873-'74. This was printed by the 

 Secretary, and has been the text of guidance, as to observation, employed by the agents of tbe government ever 

 since. Tbe maps and sketch-maps are herewith accordingly given to tbe public for the fh'st time; the author, 

 fearing that private and personal affairs, which now confine him, may possibly never permit bis going over to the 

 Asiatic rookeries, thinks it perhaps better that wbat he now knows definitely in regard to the matter should be 

 published without longer delay. 



It was with peculiar pleasure that the writer undertook, at the suggestion of Professor Baird, who is the 

 honored and beloved secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the task of examining into and reporting upon this 

 subject; and it is also gratifying to add, that the statements of fact and the hypotheses evolved therefrom by him 

 in 1874, have, up to the present time, been verified by the inflexible sequence of events on the ground itself. The 

 concurrent testimony of the numerous agents of the Treasury Department and the government generally, who have 

 trodden iu his footsteps, amply testifies to their stability. (See note, 39, A.) 



B. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



2. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE FUR-SEAL. 



Peculiarities of distribution. — Our first thought in studying the distribution of the fur-seals throughout 

 the high seas of the earth, is one of wonder. While they are so widely spread over the Antarctic regions, yet, as 

 we pass the equator going north, we find iu the Atlantic above the tropics nothing that resembles them. Their 

 range in the North Pacific is virtually confined to four islands in Bering sea, namely, St. Paul and St. George of 

 the tiny Pribylov 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 conditions 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 

 nothing in the North Pacific beyond what we have designated in Bering sea will answer the requirements of the 

 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 reaches 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 carrying 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, bringing 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, Arctocephalus australis, together with many sea-lions, Otaria Hook&ri; great numbers were then 

 captured by fur-sealers, who found to their sorrow, when the skins were inspected, that pelage was poor and 

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



Along and off the coast of Chili and Bolivia are the St. Felix and Juan Fernandez islands, the latter place 

 being one of the most celebrated rookeries known to Antarctic sealers. The west coast of Patagonia and a portion 

 of that of Terra del Fuego was, in those early days of seal hunting, and is to-day, the finest connected range of 

 seal-rookery ground iu the south. Here was aunually 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, iu the brief mention made by the best authority, as fairly swarming with fur-seals when they were opened 

 up by Captain Cook. There is today, in the place of the millions that ouce existed, an insignificant number, 

 taken notice of only now and then. 



