114 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



73 404. Messrs. Carne and Miiiisie, in a letter, dated the 31st 



October, 1S90, addressed to Mr. Milne, state that wliile the seals 

 had in that year, both in Behring Sea and along the coast, to some 

 extent changed tlieir grounds, they did not appear to be any scarcer 

 than when they first engaged in tlie sealing business in 1884. In 1890, 

 they found the seals most plentiful to the north and eastward of the 

 Islands of St. Paul and St. Gecn-ge, and distant from tlieni from 35 

 to 60 miles, while in former years they were most abundant to the 

 westward of these islands. All their captains reported that the seals 

 were as plentiiiil as ever in Behring Sea, and attributed the compara- 

 tively small catches made to the rough and foggy weather that pre- 

 vailed during the season. Captain J. S. Cox, in a letter bearing the 

 same date as that from which the above statements are taken, and 

 addressed to the same gentleman, says that the masters of his schooners 

 report that the seals are not getting any scarcer. The limited catch 

 made was, in their opinion, due entirely to the bad weather which i^re- 

 vailed in Behring Sea during the sealing season. They found the seals 

 most plentiful to the east of St. Paul and St. George Islands. Messrs. 

 Hall, Goepel, and Co., in a letter, dated the 1st November, 1890, and 

 also addressed to Mr. Milne, state that the captains of their schooners 

 found the seals to be as plentiful as in any previous year, but that, 

 owing to tlie foggy and boisterous weather encountered in Behring 

 Sea, very large catches were not made. 



405. During the month of January 1892, several captains of sealing- 

 vessels, and hunters on such vessels, were examined under oath by Mr. 

 Milne at Victoria, and from their evidence the foHowing statements as 

 to the relative abundance of seals in 1891, as comi)ared with former 

 years, are taken : 



Mr. C. J. Kelly found the seals as abundant as formerly along the 

 coast to the Shumagin Islands. 



Captain Wm. Petit followed the seals north from Cape Flattery, and 

 says: 



I found them more plentiful last year tbau I have any year since 1886; that is, 

 from Cajie Flattery north .... In Behriuy Sea as plentiful as in former 

 years .... We saw more last year than for several years iireviously. 



Captain W. E. Baker reported the seals to be as i^lentiful along the 

 coast to Shumagin Islands as in former years, '' in some places more 

 plentiful." He says: "No material difference in my average catch for 

 last four years." 



Captain A. Bisset followed the seals north from Cape Flattery and 

 found them as abundant as ever before. 



Captain T. M. Magneseu says : 



I think they [the seals] were more plentiful last season than I ever saw them 

 before .... The biggest catch I have ever made was last year, on the coast as 

 well as in Behring Sea. 



Heurj^ Crocker thinks, from what he saw of the seals, that " they were 

 just as many as before." 



Pichard Thompson believed the seals were as plentiful as in the 

 previous year. 



Andrew Laing had observed no decrease in the number of seals j "if 

 anything, they were a little more numerous than in 1890." 



Captain W. Cox took 1,000 seals in four days, 100 miles to the west- 

 ward of the Pribyloff Islands. He found the seals much more plentiful 

 in Behring Sea than he had ever seen them before. 



406. Similar evidence of a general character, and confirmatory of the 

 statistics just quoted, was obtained by us in the autumn of 1891 from 



