246 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



Sea, where they are followed hy the sealing-vessels. They usually take to the islaiifls 

 about the first of June, the hrecdiiij? cows and hulls being- earlier than the rest of 

 the herd. The breciding goes on altout four months. 



The writer in the London " Times" before alluded to says of the method adopted 

 on the islands for taking the seals, that: 



"It is cruel and unsportsmaulike. The animals have no chance for their lives, 

 hut are slaughtered like sheep in the shambles. A portion of the herd is separated 

 from the mniu body hy a party of men armed with clubs. These men — they can 

 hardly be called hunters — by shouts and blows drive the part of the herd they have 

 surrounded away into the interior of the islands, a mile or so from the beach. 

 Here, on a clear space, the unfortunate seals are atonce clubbed to death and skinned, 

 the carcases being left as they lie. These slaughters are carried on until the number 

 of skins required are secured. Latterly the seals seem to have an instinct that 

 there is something wrong, as the squads driven into the sand-hills never return, 

 only the stench from the slaughter coming down to the beach when the land breeze 

 blows. In consequence of this the rookeries have been less frequented than in 

 former years. This has given rise to the assertion of the monopolizing Company 

 that the taking of seal by the private vessels is causing a depletion of the seals on 

 the breeding islands. 



"When the methods adopted by the hunters of the sealing- vessels are compared 

 with those of the licensed killers, those barbarous butchers, it does not require much 

 consideration to give an intelligent judgment in the case, and determine which 

 method is the most humane and which method is the real cause of the seals leaving 

 the rookeries. 



" When the sealing-schooner is at sea she has a number of small boats of a canoe 

 form, bnilt expressly for sealing. When a seal is sighted a boat is launched over- 

 board, a huntei-, with one or two men to pull the boat, quietly take their places. 

 Thehnnter is armed with shot-gnns and riile. The boat is pulled iiuietly toward the 

 seal. In nine cases out f ten the animal takes alarm and dives out of sight before 

 the boat is near enough for the hunter to shoot, and in no case does a hunter shoot 

 until he is near enough to be certain of the game. As soon as a seal is shot it begins 

 to sink slowly, and the boat is pulled rapidly up to it, the carcase is gatfed and hauled 

 aboard. This is repeated as long as a seal can be seen. In many instances only one 

 or two will be killed during a whole day's hunting, but at other times as m;iny as 

 twenty or thirty will be taken. After a day's hunt the boats return to the schooner, 

 the seals are skinned, and the pelts laid in salt in the hold. This goes on from day 

 to day during the season. A small boat is not a very safe craft in the boisterous water 

 of the Northern Ocean, and the thick fogs often spring up and hide the schocmers 

 from the hunters' sight, when days may elapse before the boats are picked u]), and 

 sometimes they are never found Thus these hardy sealers pursue the objects of their 

 chase in the open sea. The seal has a chance of escaping, and the percentage killed 

 is very small. When it is considered that an extent of ocean of nearly 12,000 square 

 miles is hunted over, the chance is slight of the seals being exterminated by the tleet 

 of sixtj or seventy vessels engaged in the seal-hunting business. 



'•'It has been asserted that only a few seals out of every hundred shot are ca])tured 

 by the hunters, and the balance sink or escape wounded to die later on. This is not 

 so. The ample evidence collected by the Commissioners this season proves that a 

 seal hardly ever escapes when shot. Of course, a few do, but not over five or six out 

 of the hundred. 



" The sealing monopolists of the rookeries have had reports made by so-called 

 'experts' on the condition of the sealing business and on the probable effect on seal 

 life if the present rate of killing is to be kept up. All, or nearly all, of these 'experts' 

 have reported that but few seal are left; that the piratical poaching schooners had 

 killed them off, and yet the whole of the persons interviewed by the Coiumissioners, 

 masters of sealing-schoouers, Indians along the coast, and traders admitted that the 

 seals are in no ways diminishing in numbers, but that the present season of 1891 the 

 fur-seals in the North Pacific have been more numerous than for the past twenty 

 years. There is, however, miich greater difiQculty experienced in capturing them. 

 The wary animals have learned what a sealing-boat is, and at the sound of a gun the 

 animal is on its guard, and it is harder for the hunter to get in range of his (juarry. 

 The Indians kill the seal by paddling the canoe silently close to the slee])ing animal, 

 and then with unerring aim hurling a barbed spear with a line attached, with which 

 the seal is hauled in and taken aboard the canoe. Seldom or never does a seal escape. 



The white hunters use the gun as described." 

 176 Although seals have appeared in incredible numbers this present season of 1891, 



yet the weather all through the spring and early summer months was unusually 

 boisterous, and days and even weeks elapsed during which time it was imi)ossible to 

 launcii a sealing-boat or an Indian canoe, consequently the catch has not been as 

 large as was generally expected, and recent accounts from London show that the 

 j)rices brought for fur-seal skins at the great trade sales did not average over 13 dol- 



