i 



126 



BULLETIN OP THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



The British ParliaiiiLMit enacted tlie necessary legislation (Seal Fishery, North 

 Pacific, Act 1893), an "order in fouiicil" was passed July i, 1893, and the agiecnient 

 went into eliect. The Russian war vessels the Zabiaka and the Yal-ut, the latter a 

 small transport, as well as two British cruisers, kept up a constant patrol of the 30-uiile 

 zone. 



The success of 1892 and the continued closure of the American side of Bering Sea 

 during 1893 drove the great majority of the sealing fleet over to the Asiatic side (larly 

 in the season, and the Commander Islands herd was, therefore, preyed upon to a 

 previously unknown extent along the Japan coast during the migration, in addition to 

 the slaughter of the females on the feeding grounds. No less than 3.5 schooners from 

 Victoria, B. C, were sealing off the Commander Islands, mostly outside the 30 mile 

 limit, and made a haul of 1-!,013 skins, while 22 schooners had hunted off the Japan 

 coast, obtaining a total of 29,270 skins. It is stated that, in addition to the above 

 figures relating to the Canadian fleet, the number of skins landed at Hakodate, Japan, 

 by American vessels was 18,587, and by Hawaiian vessels 3,212, a total of 21,799 skins. 

 A small percentage of these was undoubtedly contributed by the Ivuril herd and 

 Robbeu Island seals, but it is safe to say tliat the pelagic sealing (jf 1893 yielded 

 about 00,000 Commander Island skins, the majority females. How many more were 

 wastefully killed and lost it is impossible to say. 



I append a list of the Canadian vessels sealing on the Asiatic side in 1893, 

 extracted from the Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Canadian Department of Fish- 

 eries (pp. CLXVi-CLXVii), as follows: 



Jieporl of ve 



I of British Columbia sealing fleet sealing on the " Ilussian side," season 1893. 



Victoria, B. C: 



Triumph 



S.apphire 



E.B.Marvin 



Mascot 



Dora Siewerd 



Minnie 



ADiiieE. Paint... 



Di.-ina 



Mermaid 



Fawn 



Oci-anBi-lle 



Arietis 



Ainoko 



Katitarine 



Enterprise 



Agnea McDonald 



Viva 



ITmbrina 



Vera 



otto 



Mary Taylor 



Breuda 



Libbie 



City of San Diego 



Geneva 



Casco 



CarlottaG. Cox.. 

 Oscar and Hattio . 



Teresa 



Sadie Turpie 



MaiidS 



Mary Ellen 



Walter L. IMoh... 

 Annie C. Moore . . 

 Walter P. Hall... 



u 



C.N.Cox 



Wm. Cox 



J. Gould 



H. F. Siewerd 



K. O. Lavender — 



J. Molirhouse 



A. Bissett 



A. NeLson 



W. H.Whiteley ... 



L. Maguesen 



T.O'Leary 



A . Douglass 



(t. Heater 



W. D. McDougall 



J. W.Todd 



M.F. Cutler 



.1. W. Anderson ... 



C. Campbell 



W. Shields 



M. Keefe 



E. Shields , 



C. E. Locke 



F.Haekett 



M.Piko 



W. O'Leary 



O. Buckley 



W.D.Bvers 



W. E. Bilker 



E. Lorenz 



C. Le Blanc 



E.E. McKcil 



W.O. Hnghes 



S. Balcom 



J.Dalpy 



J. B. Brown 



1,027 

 2,333 

 1,441 

 1,827 

 1,910 



1,012 

 1, 473 

 2.396 



1,178 



