REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 15 



18. The facts thus obtaiuod aftorded a direct knowledge of the fur-sealing industry, 

 both past and present, as it affects the Indians of South-east Alaska and British 

 Columbia. 



19. We completed our local investigations by obtaining from the sealers in Victoria, 

 Vancouver, and Seattle, further evidence as to their opinions and wishes, thus con- 

 cluding our task by obtaining authoritatively the views of all persons connected with 

 the fur-seal fishery on the facts of seal life and on the protective measures they would 

 favour. 



20. The cruize in the North Pacific occupied nearly three months, and the log 

 shows a distance covered of more than 9,000 miles. 



21. We were thus enabled to examine for ourselves all the principal seal rookeries, 

 and especially to inspect the typical rookeries on the Pribyloff Islands at three 

 diftereut seasons, at the widest intervals of time possible within the period at our 

 commaud: to learn, by personal inquiry, knowledge of the limits eastward, north- 

 ward, and westward of the present habitat of the fur-seal, and to satisfy ourselves as 

 to the peculiar features of the localities which the fur-seal did or did not select as 

 shore resorts. 



22. In regard to the important point of the facts and reasons of the presence of the 

 fur-seal in particular portions of the ocean at particular seasons of the year, a point 

 on which we could find little or no jirevious descriptions or recorded observations, 

 records were collated from schooners engaged in sealing, and for 1891 we formulated 

 a j)lau of seal logs and seal track-charts based on recorded observations of seals seen 

 at sea, which has been very efficiently carried out on the British men-of-war 

 "Nymphe," " Porpoise," aud "Pheasant," and on our own chartered steamer, the 

 "Danube," — similar work having also been carried on by the United States men-of- 

 -war and revenue-cutters employed in Behring Sea during the same season. For this 

 'pur])ose also special inquiries were made as to the kinds of fish coustitutiug the 

 Ifavourite food of the fur-seal. Photographs were also taken by us of the seals, their 

 .breeding places, aud surroundings. 



23. It may be observed further, that in obtaining evidence from persons of expe- 

 rience or knowledge of the subject, we adopted, in general, the informal plan of free 

 interviews and independent conversation. In this way we acquired A'ery distinct 

 and trustworthy knowledge of their opinions and experiences. 



24. The witnesses who thus gave evidence included officials of the Governments 

 and til© Companies, and ex-officials now otherwise employed, owners, captains and 

 hunters engaged in pelagic sealing; natives, chiefiy Aluet and Russian half-breeds, 

 engaged in killing and skinning^'seals on the Pribyloff Islands; natives, such as 

 Indians, Innuits, andAluets, who habitually hunt and kill fur seals, and merchants 

 and others connected with the trade in furs. 



25. In the following statement of the results of our investigations, we propose, 

 first of all, to present in simimary, in Part I, a general view of the conclusions at 

 .which we have arrived as to the condition of seal life in the North Pacific Ocean, and 

 'as to the measures necessary for the preservation of the fur-seal industrj-. 



We would then, in Part II, deal in a more systematic manner and in detail with 

 the various divisions of the subject, and subsequently give, as Appeudices, such cor- 

 respondence aud statistics as may be needed to complete our account of the subject 

 under investigation. 



