146 REPORT OP BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



564. Furtlier i)articnlars of interest respecting the Indian fur-seal 

 hunters of Cape Flattery may be found in Judge J. G. Swan's report 

 on that subject contained in the "Report of the Fisheries and Fishery 

 Industries of the United States," vol. ii, p. 393. Also in the "Bulletin 

 of the United States Fish Commission," vol. iii, p. 201. From thetirst 

 of these publications, it appears that the independent catch of the Cape 

 Flattery Indians amounted to 1,558 skins in 1880, with an average 

 value of 9 dollars per skin at that time. In a letter of recent date, the 

 same gentleman states that no ofhcial record of the number of skins 

 taken by these Indians has since been kept. 



565. While it is to be regretted that it is imi)ossible to give an accurate 

 statistical record of the number of fur-seal skins taken by the natives 

 of the coasts of Alaska, British Columbia, and Washington, by their 

 independent hunting in their own canoes from the shores, the results 

 of inquiries made at a number of detached places along the coasts, and 

 given in abstract above, are at least sufficient to show that important 

 vested interests are there involved. 



566. It is undeniable that all the natives represented along this great 

 line of coast have been accustomed from the earliest times to hunt the 

 fur-seal. So long as the sea-otter was abundant, little use was made 

 of the inferior skin of the fur seal, and that animal was prized chiefly 

 as an article of food. At a later date, when the hunting of the sea- 

 otter had become scarcely remunerative because of its increasing 

 scarcity on this part of the coast, the price oftered for the skins of the 

 fur-seal was still insufficient to tempt the natives to engage systematic- 

 ally in the somewhat hazardous business of its capture; but as the 

 skins became higher in price, and notably within the last twenty years, 

 the hunting of the fur-seal has possessed a greater importance for the 

 natives. Within quite recent years, however, the independent hunting 

 of natives has somewhat decreased from two principal causes — the 

 employment of large numbers of the more expert natives on sealing 

 vessels, and the growth of various other industries callable of affording 

 remunerative employment. 



567. The low prices given in former years to the Indians of the 

 97 British Columbian coast foi; their skins were in part due to the 

 fact that, in accordance with native custom, the skins were 

 stretched and dried, and were thus not so suitable for the trade as salted 

 skins; but of late years the Indians have become accustomed to salt 

 nearly all the skins they take. 



568. Eespecting the dates between which the Indians of various tribes 

 engage in seal hunting, and in connection particularly with the notes 

 elsewhere given on the migration of the fur-seal, it must be observed 

 that these dates do not necessarily coincide with those defining the 

 occurrence of fur-seals along the coast. The actual time of beginning 

 the hunt depends chiefly upon the date at which such fine weather as 

 is described as "sealing weather" sets in. The close of sealing is, on 

 the other hand, largely governed by the arrival of the particular sea- 

 son at which immemorial custom requires that fishing of some other 

 kind — generally halibut fishing — shall begin. 



569. The best estimates obtained of the number of skins taken annu- 

 ally by the Indians of the British Columbia coast alone, for the last four 

 or five years, show that about 1,500 in all are taken to the north of the 

 northern end of Vancouver Islaiul, and at least a similar number to the 

 south of that point, or say, at least 3,000 skins each year for the entire 

 coast. Estimating these at 10 dollars a skin (an average price suffi- 

 ciently low to cover the relatively small value of the skins of grey pups 



