138 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



still (locrcasiiis;- number of natives, it would not be difficult to set apart 

 reserves for this ])urpose,as well as for the ])ropapitiou of the sea-otter. 

 The greatest difticulty iu the case of the fur-seal would doubtless be 

 found iu the nuitter of inducing the first colonizatiou of sucli new 

 rookery grounds, but as it has been shown that the smell of the form- 

 erly occupied rookeries is one of the chiefs — if not the chief — attrac- 

 tion to the lirst arriving seals, and as this smell is inherent chiefly in 

 the soil of these rookeries, it is i)erhaps not unworthy of consideration 

 wliether the transfer of portions of this seal-impregnated soil, and its 

 scattering over suitable places — particularly such as lie near the migra- 

 tion-route of the seal — might not lead to tlieir occupation. In any case, 

 such reservations would soon be colonized by the more widely wander- 

 ing sea-lions and hair-seals, and the security and increase of these 



would probably after a time have the eflect of producing a 

 91 sense of sfifety which might induce the fur-seal to take up its 



abode there at the breeding season. The principal objection to 

 experiments of this kind would be the cost of afitbrding the necessary 

 protection, but if such islands were also stocked with and ijreserved 

 for the blue-fox, the sale of the skins of this animal might alone, iu the 

 course of a few years, be sufficient to cover a large part of this cost. 



525. Similar measures would, of course, be also worthy of considera- 

 tion iu the case of various places on the shores of British Columbia, or 

 on the Asiatic coasts of the Pacific. 



II. — Natives of the Coasts of British Columbia and Alaska 

 directly interested in independent sealing. methods of 

 Hunting, and Number taken. 



526. The native peoples of the west coast of America directly inter- 

 ested in the capture of the fur-seal are the following: 



1. Aleut. 



2. Eskimo, or Innuit, including Kaniagnuit, of Kadiak Island and 

 vicinity, and Chaga-Chigmut, of Prince William Sound, with probably 

 some other tribes of lesser importance. 



3. The Tlinkit, or Koloshan tribes of South-eastern Alaska. 



4. The Haida, of the Queen Charlotte Islands; with the Kaigani, of 

 the southern extremity of the Alaskan coast-strip. 



5. The Tshimsiau, of the inner coast of Hecate Strait. 



6. The Hailtzuk tribes, to the south of the last. 



7. The Kwakiool tribes of the northern part of Vancouver Island. 



8. The Aht, or Nootkan tribes, of the west coast of the same island, 

 and including the linguistically-identical Makah, of Neah Bay and Cape 

 Flattery. 



527. All these people have known and hunted the fur-seal from time 

 immemorial, and in all cases either within the limits of what has beeji 

 referred to as the winter habitat of the seal, or along the course of its 

 northward migration-route. So long as the breeding islands remained 

 uninhabited by man, the seal was practically exempt from his attacks 

 in its summer habitat. 



528. The amount of the interest of these native peoples in this pursuit 

 has naturally varied in accordance with changing circumstances, and 

 has, in most cases, been notably stimulated by the higher prices which 

 have ruled for skins withiu the last twenty years. Their aborigiual 



