148 REPOKT OP BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



euougli facts to show this may be jjjatherod, thong:li a complete exami- 

 nation of the original works migiit doubtless atlbrd additional facts of 

 the same kind. 



575. Thus, in 17(»0, the "Vladimir" included in her return cargo 2,000 

 fur-seal skins which are said to have been brought from the Near Islands 

 of the Aleutian chain. The number here given is, however, so consid- 

 erable, that it may be regarded as not improbably showing that at this 

 early date some place resorted to by the fur-seal for breeding, still 

 existed on Agatu, Attn, or other neighbouring islands of thegroui); in 

 which case all of these skins nuiy not have been taken at sea. The 

 "Arkangel Sv. Mikhail," returning from a voyage which had extended 

 from 1772 to 1777, during which Kadiak was reached, but in which no 

 mention is made of any call at the Commander Islands (the Pribyloff 

 Islands had not then been discovered), brought back 143 fur sealskins. 

 In 171)0, again, 8auer, of theEussian Scientific Expedition, under Bil- 

 lings, is recorded to have been told at Shelikoff's establishment at 

 Kadiak, that 600 double bidarkas had been sent out to hunt sea-otters, 

 fur-seals, and sea lions. In 1812, in Ohugatach Bay, Prince William 

 Sound, where seals had formerly been plentiful, the yield is stated to 

 have fallen off to fifty skins.* 



570. Similar incidental allusions may be found as well iu the records 

 of other voyages. Thus, among the skins sold in China by Portlock and 

 Dixon, in 1788, were 110 fur-seal skins, though these navigators did not 

 approach the known breeding islands in any j)art of their route.t 



In 1791, again, Captain Marchand obtained thirty-seven seal-skins 

 from the natives of Norfolk Sound, these skins forming a considerable 

 proportion of the whole amount of furs got there.J 



577. There is often some difficulty iu identifying the particular kind 

 of skins which were obtained by such traders along the coast, because 

 of the indefinite and varied terms made use of by them, but it seems 

 l)robable that much of tliat classed as " beaver" was in reality fur-seal. § 

 This nuist certainly have been the case in the Queen Charlotte Islands, 

 for though Portlock and Dixon state that considerable numbers of 

 "beaver skins" were purchased there, the beaver is not, and never has 

 been, a native of these islands.|| 



578. The opinion just referred to is that of Mr. Alexander Mackenzie, 

 who has long been familiar with the Queen Charlotte Islands in partic- 

 ular, and who bases his statements upon the direct testimony of the 

 natives themselves, to the effect that they frequently in former times 

 traded fur-seal skins to the vessels then frequenting the islands in search 

 of sea-otter skins. 



579. Such facts, taken in conjunction with those already given as the 

 result of our own inquiries on the West Coast, are, at least, sufficient to 

 show that the natives were, from the earliest recorded dates, accustomed 

 to hunt the fur-seal, as well as the more valuable sea-otter, at sea. So 

 long as the skin of the fur-seal possessed but an insignificant commercial 

 value, little attention was paid by traders and others upon the coast to 

 the hunting of this animal by the Indians. The skins scarcely appeared 

 iu the lists of furs procured, and very little has been placed on record 

 on the subject. A few skins were purchased by the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany from time to time, chiefly those offered by the Cape Flattery Indians. 



* Bancroft's History, vol. xxxiii, pp. 155, 171, 286, uud 528. 



t" Voyage to the North-west Coast of America," p. 300. 



t" Voynge Aiitour dii Monde," tome ii, p. 11. 



5 Tlie term "8ea-l»eaver" was also, however, sometinu^s applied to the sea-otter. 



II "Voyage to the North-west Coast of America," pp. 169, 201, and 300. 



