262 REPORT OP BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



Beveral seasons on the Commander Islands, assures me that, instead of decreasing, the 

 fur-seals there are actualh' iucreaBin j? in numbers. A comparison of the Ivussian ideas 

 of seal management with our own will readily show the reason. The necessity for great 

 care in the driving and management of the drive seems to be a fixed fact in the minds 

 of the Russian officials and natives of the Commander Islands, while on the Pribyloif 

 Islands not the slightest interest is taken in the matter. On the Russian side the 

 natives are iirm in the belief that their interests lie in the proper care of the seals; 

 consequently, when a drive is made, it is composed of many small drives carefully 

 selected and slowly driven, so that the large and small seals unfit for killing are 

 gradnally weeded out, and when the drive reaches the killing grounds it is composed 

 almost entirely of killable seals. 



On the American side, on the contrary, the seals are driven as fast as possible, the 

 only ones weeded out being those too weak to go further, while of those rounded up 

 on the killing ground by far the greater number are allowed to escape. Out of a 

 drive of 1,103 counted by me only 120 were killed; the rest were released. On the 

 Russian side, it is a settled fact that the islands and seals belong to the Russian 

 Government, and that the Company taking the skins has only certain restricted 

 rights for that purpose; but on the American side it seems to be a settled fact, at 

 least in the minds of the Company's people, that they own the seals and the islands, 

 while the duty of the Government is to collect the tax and appoint Agents to sub- 

 serve the interests of the Company only. The natives are utterly dependent on the 

 seal Company for their support, and while having a very vague idea that somehow 

 the Government is a big thing, they naturally look to the Company for everything 

 affecting their interests. 



Sealers have no doubt about the fate that would be their lot if caught poaching 

 on the Commander Islands, or within 3 miles of their shores, and accordingly have 

 given them a wide berth ; but they have heretofore done as they pleased about the 

 Rribyloff Islands, and even on the rookeries. In the absence of the revenue-cutters 

 the islands are utterly defenceless, and liable at any time to be raided. 



I have only touched lightly upon several questions of the sealing industry, and 

 have by no means exhausted the subject ; but enough has been said, I think, to show 

 that if an industry, which eighteen month ago was expected to pay the Government 

 a net profit of over 2,000 per cent., and is, besides, a great natural exhibit, the only 

 one of the kind America can produce, is to be saved, reform is necessary. For twenty 

 years the fur-seal has been the spoil of politics and the victim of the poacher. Inex- 

 perience on the one hand, and avarice on the other, have well nigh ruined the indus- 

 try in American waters. 



There are then two chief causes of the decrease of seal life on the PribyloflF 

 Islands — poaching in Behring Sea, and the driving and culling of the seals on the 

 islands. The remedy is simple : 



1. No seals should be killed by any one at any time in the waters of Behring Sea. 



2. All seals driven on the islands should be killed; none should be driven and again 

 allowed to enter the sea. 



These remedies are not new. Nearly twenty years ago Captain Daniel Webster, 

 whose knowledge and experience of sealing are second to none, said, pointing to the 

 drive, " Every one of them should be killed, none should be allowed to return to the 

 water," and gave reasons which, while unsupported by evidence then, and which, 

 in view of the immense abundance of seal life, seemed absurd at the time, are now 

 beginning to be accepted as true. 



There should also be a close time for at least five years to allow the rookeries to be 

 replenished, and then by careful management by a bureau and employes of the Gov- 

 ernment, trained in the knowledge and care of animal life, a rich and profitable 

 industry will be saved. 



(Signed) William Palmek. 



United States' National Museum, Washington, D. C. 



190 16. — Extract from the Melbourne "Argus," December 17, 1SS7, referred to by Mr. 



F. Chapman, 



sealers at work. 



[By James M'Gliie, survivor from the wreck of the "Derry Castle."] 



When I wrote the account of "Life ou the Auckland Islands," which has just 

 appeared in "The Argus," I purposely said nothing about the Awarua poaching 

 seals when she visited Port Ross, and picked us up while we were cast away there. 

 It did not become me to tell tales against my Ix^nefactor, but inasmuch as the cap- 

 tain's admission of the poaching has been published in all the newspapers, I may as 

 well describe how seal hunting is done. The work is the most dangerous and 



