192 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



763. We ourselves noticed the great ease with which, under present 

 arrangements, raids might be successfully carried out, and nothingwhat- 

 ever be known to the residents at the moment, while after discovery- 

 depended merely on accident. Even on the rookeries immediately under 

 the settlements no look-out is kept. For instance, we steamed into the 

 anchorage of the settlement at St. Paul, close past the Zapadnie and 

 Tolstoi rookeries, one bright moonlight night (14th September), and 

 moved early the next morning by daylight round the Gorbotch and Reef 

 rookeries to the other landing, without our presence becoming known 

 in any way at the settlement. On the outlying rookeries no watch what- 

 ever is present, except at North-east Point on St. Paul Island and Zapad- 

 nie on St. George Island. All the other rookeries on both islands are, 

 as a rule, absolutely without any watch or guard. On North-east and 

 Zapadnie rookeries the guard consists of two or three native Aleuts 

 who have rifles, but are instructed not to fire at men. Moreover, we are 

 by no means assured that bribery by money or drink has not been actu- 

 ally practised over some of these distant guards. 



Evidence was afforded of numerous instances of the signs of recent 

 raids being' discovered, although as to the actual occurrence nothing 

 whatever was known to those in authority at the time, and we are not 

 at all surprised to see that in recent years the reports that schooners 

 are hovering oft" the island, anchoring close in, and sending boats ashore, 

 are rai)idly growing in frequency. As the prospects of a heavy catch 

 ashore or along the. rookery fronts are great, so is the temptation great, 

 especially as chances of detection are few and innocuous, and chances 

 of capture most remote under the present system. 



In short, under present regulations and arrangements, there is no 

 difSculty or danger whatever to vessels raiding along shore any night, 

 or in any of the frequent fogs at several of the best rookeries, except 

 when a revenue-cruizer chances to be close by, an occasional occurrence 

 well known to every marauding schooner. Moreover, the United States 

 cruizers never interfere with " whalers," some of which undoubtedly, at 

 all events, report the movements of the cruizers, forming as it were both 

 watch-houses and store-houses for the raiders, even when they do not 

 themselves engage in actual raiding. 



764. It is, perhaps, needless to reassert that this form of taking seals 

 is entirely illegitimate, and although it is a very severe and disastrous 

 drain on seal life, it is, nevertheless, one for which the national govern- 

 ment and the administration are entirely and solely responsible. Thus, 

 the British men-of-war which in 1801 entered Behring Sea for the pur- 

 pose of assisting in stopping sealing at sea were expressly and properly 

 precluded from taking any step within the ordinary jurisdictional limits 

 around coasts and islands. 



765. It may be pointed out that in no case yet has it been shown or 

 proved that any British vessel ever engaged in raiding on the Priby- 

 loff Islands. 



766. There is no valid reason whatever why the local authorities 

 should not be provided with ample means for stopping raids. It should 

 be remembered also that the San Francisco sealers have asserted that 

 the possibility of raiding, a most profitable operation, encourages seal- 

 ers of a certain class to tit out sealing-schooners and enter Behring Sea, 

 and if the local authorities made raiding the great risk that it should 

 be, they would take one practical step towards reducing the number 

 of vessels which engage in this illegitimate and most destructive 

 methods of sealing. 



