REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 25 



62. Pelagic sealing', as thus by dej^rees expanded into an 

 iinportaut industry, was an essentially novel method of tak- 

 ing the fur-seal consequent on the peculiar habits and mari- 

 time genius of the native peoples of the west coast of iSorth 

 America, and particularly of those in British Columl)i;i, and 

 the vicinity of Cax)e Flattery in the adjacent State of Wash- 

 ington. It was from the first, and still is, an important 

 source of revenue to a native population, numbering many 

 thousands, as well ns a help to their advancement in civili- 

 zation. 



03. Under the circumstances above described as prevail- 

 ing on the breeding islands, the growth of this new industry, 

 however, meant a further acceleration of the rate of dimi- 

 nution of the fur seal of the North Pacitic as a whole. 



04. The hunting of the fur-seal by the native peoples in y^^^^" eXultln^ * 

 their own canoes, and using the shore as a base of opera- 

 tions, had been practised trom times which are prehistoric 



for the West Coast; but the total number of seals thus 

 taken (save in certain exceptional years) was always small, 

 and it was not till about the year 1861> that the tirst practical 

 essays were made in taking the seals at sea with the assist- 

 ance of schooners provided with Indian hunting crews and 

 canoes. This method of hunting was initiated almost simul- 

 taneously, about the time mentioned, in British Columbia 

 and in the adjacent State of Washington. 



65. It may liere be particularly noted that the industry Peculiar char- 

 thus developed in consequence of peculiar local conditions, ^^^^[ng* I'^'agi" 

 had never elsewhere appeared as a factor of commercial 

 Importance, and that'in so far as we have been able to dis- 

 cover by inquiries specially directed to this point, no ves- 

 sels carrying hunters for the puri)ose of taking seals at 

 large on the sea-surface had ever before frequented any seas 

 anywhere. 



The vessels sailing from i^ew England and from some 

 British i»orts, Avhicli formerly, in considerable numbers, 

 made sealing voyages to the Southern Hemisphere (§ 834 

 et seq.)^ slaughtered the seals there only on shore and at the 

 breeding places, and this without any respect for the rights 

 of territorial dominion or property over the islands they 

 frequented. The " sealing fleet " employed in the Southern 

 Hemisphere has, therefore, at no time been of the same 

 character with that engaged in pelagic sealing in the jSTorth 

 Pacific. 



60. For several years subsequent to its inception, pelagic if« gvovrth. 

 sealing remained in the hands of a few persons, and was 

 to so great an extent a trade secret that little information 

 can now be obtained respecting it. This is particularly the 

 case in regard to the sealing-vessels sailing from United 

 States ports, some of which, although interested in ])elagic 

 sealing proper, are known to have obtained many skins by 

 illegal raiding on the breeding islands from tlie earliest 

 years of the control of these islands by the United States. 



67. From four schooners in 1878 and 1879 (about which 

 time the new development of sealing first began to attract 

 some attention), the sealing fleet owned in British Colum- 

 bia gradually increased, till in 1889 twenty-three, in 1890 



