REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 153 



re-engaged for the .second trip. Therefore, in 1890, arrangements were 

 made by the sealers to rendezvous with a steamer at some northern 

 l)oint in June, to transliip their skins for conveyance to Victoria, com- 

 pleting their outfit for hunting in Behring Sea at the same time. In 

 1890, Sand Point, in the Shumigin Islands, was the place selected for 

 the purpose, and in 1891 Alitak Bay, Kadiak Island, was chosen. 



597. The foregoing details respecting the growth of the pelagic seal- 

 ing industry of British Columbia have been obtained by special research 

 and inquiry, bnt it has been found to be practically impossible to pro- 

 cure, whether officially or otherwise, comparable particulars of the 

 pelagic sealing business conducted by United States vessels. It is 

 known that vessels sailing from the New England States have been 

 engaged in the capture of the fur-seal since the latter jiart of the last 

 century, their operations being carried on principally in the southern 

 hemisphere, and the mode of killing the seals being that of a promiscu- 

 ous slaughter whenever these animals could be found on shore, carried 

 out by means of clubs or otherwise. This method of killing seals has, 

 however, no analogy with that of pelagic sealing as now understood. It 

 is further known, tiiat in more recent years, and after the Governments 

 of Kussia, Japan, and the United States had provided regulations for 

 the protection of the respective breeding islands under their jurisdic- 

 tion, vessels were dispatched by unscrupulous persons for the purpose 

 of raiding the rookeries upon these islands. Tlie records preserved of 

 the raids themselves, which are treated in detail elsewhere, show that 

 such illegal sealing has been carried on, but, naturally enough, it 

 102 is difficult to obtain full particulars of its character or magnitude. 

 This again, however, is quite distinct from the question of pelagic 

 sealing proper, the origin of which little if at all antedates the year 

 18G9. Moreover, while this raiding of the various breeding islands 

 ^appears to have been practised from year to year in the case of United 

 States vessels, it has latterly been more and more replaced by the legit- 

 imate pursuit of the fur-seal at sea. There was thus almost an organic 

 connection between the two methods of sealing in the case of vessels 

 sailing from the United States, that did not exist in the case of the seal- 

 ing industry of British Columbia, which grew up directly from the inde- 

 ])endent Indian sea-sealing, and had not previously existed in any other 

 form. 



598. A certain number of vessels have for many years taken clear- 

 ances from the Pacific ports of the United States for "hunting and 

 fishing voyages;" but while most of those which have been engaged 

 in any form of sealing have doubtless been included under this general 

 designation, it comprises as well vessels which may have been engaged 

 in various forms of fishing proper, and in the hunting of the sea-otter. 

 I^ven in the last census of the United States (1890) the vessels engaged 

 in sealing are not specially indicated, but are included under the gen- 

 eral designation of the ''fur-seal and sea otter fleet."* If such clear- 

 ances were confined to a single port, local inquiries might without great 

 difficulty result, in the case at least of the later years, in eliminating 

 vessels which were not engaged in pelagic sealing, and in affording a 

 reasonably exact statement of the operations of those of the latter class, 

 but the number of pin^ts of clearance has unfortunately baffled inquiries 

 made in this directioji. 



599. It is certain, however, that the pelagic sealing industry has con- 

 tinued to grow in the United States in a ratio corresponding to that of 

 the same industry in British Columbia. In 1889, the best estimate 



* See United States Ceusus Bulletin. No. 123. 



