156 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



612. Free nso lias been made of the apjielliitioii " poaeliers " asai)plied 

 to pelagic sealeis in <;eueral, and to tlie Canadian sealers in i)articiilar, 

 in the ecjurse of diseussions arising in theBehringSeaeontroversy, with 

 the obvious ])urpose of prejudicing' public opinion. The use of this term 

 may be justified in the case of raiders upon the breeding islands, but in 

 such cases only, and, as has already been stated, no instance is actually 

 known in which Canadian sealing-vessels have been found raiding the 

 Pribylofif Islands. It more nearly describes, however, the operations of 



the sealing Heet in the southern hemisi)here, which for many years 

 104 has consisted almost solely of vessels sailing from the United 



States, and which as lately as 18S0 numbered ten vessels, aggre- 

 gating 1,277 tons, and manned by 272 men,* The decreased importance 

 of this fleet in still later years has resulted only from the reduction in 

 number of seals brought about by its operations. Sealing by these 

 adventurers has been conducted entirely on land, on islands or coasts 

 either nominally or actually in the possession of various Powers, but in 

 no instance controlled by the United States, and in some cases in direct 

 infraction of all local laws. The killing of the seals has always and 

 everywhere been carried out in the indiscriminate, ruthless, and waste- 

 ful manner described in detail in several of the works elsewhere cited in 

 this lleport, and in most cases a greater part of the catch has consisted 

 of females.t 



(C.) — Froimrtion of SeaJs lost. 



613. As to the proportion by number of seals which are lost after 

 being killed or mortally wounded, to those actually taken, a great vari- 

 ety of very wild statements have been made, and it must be admitted 

 that in so far as concerns mere assertion and reiteration of such asser- 

 tion by means of the press and in every other conceivable manner, the 

 critics of pelagic sealing have established an unchallenged supremacy 

 over its defenders. If popular opinion could be educated into the belief 

 that the operations of the pelagic sealer are wholly barbarous and scan- 

 dalously destructive, by the means of unsu])ported assertion, this should 

 have been fully accomplished by this time. It is necessary, however, 

 in order to arrive at as nearly as possible a true result, to weigh and 

 criticize the evidence offered, and to take into account the sources from 

 which it comes. It is further most important to remark that actual 

 numerical statements are far more trustworthy and more susceptible of 

 critical analysis than general assertions, which, however, have hereto- 

 fore been those most commonly employed as the basis of argument in 

 this question. 



614. Disregarding mere rhetorical statements made by irresponsible 

 individuals, or given forth without signature in the press, the following 

 citations maybe made as representing the published evidence adduced 

 in oflicial reports in regard to the loss of seals by the sea-sealers. It is 

 wholly upon the evidence here cited or referred to that all the state- 

 ments as to great losses of seals in pelagic sealing have, up to this time, 

 been founded. 



Captain C. A. Abbey, from June 1886 to the latter part of August in 

 the same year in command of the United States lievenue Cutter ''Kich- 

 ard Hush," in Behring Sea, says of the pelagic sealers : ''I should judge 

 they killed about three for every one they got."| 



* " Fishery Industries of the United States," vol. ii, p. 439. 

 tlbid.,p."431. 



t " Fnr-seal Fisheries of Alaska," House of RopresiMitatives, 50th Congress, 2nd 

 Session, Report No. 3883, p. 246. 



