186 DECREASE OF THE ALASKAN SEAL HERD. 



Increase of seal- rule, enter Bering Sea.-^ A¥illiam Parker, for 



iiig fleet. 



ten years engaged in tlie sealing business, says : 

 '^ There was hardly ever a sealing schooner that 

 went to Bering Sea during these years (1881- 

 1884) or prior to 1885."^ John Morris, a mate 

 of a sealing vessel for several years, says : "Prior 

 to this (1885) I had never been in the Bering 

 Sea, and with but few exceptions sealing vessels 

 did not visit those waters."^ These two facts. 

 Comparison of then, are plainly shown, that when the sealing 

 decrease. fleet consisted of a small number of vessels, 



carrying Indian hunters, and the sealing was 

 confined to the Pacific coast, no decrease took 

 place in the number of seals; but all increase 

 ceased when the sealino- fleet increased in num- 

 bers. The vessels being outfitted with white 

 hunters, using firearms, and the hunting grounds 

 extended so as to include Bering Sea, the de- 

 crease in the seal herd became marked and rapid, 

 constantly becoming greater as the fleet of seal- 

 ing vessels increased. 



1 Andrew Laing, VoL II, p. 335; Cliarles Peterson, VoL II, p. 346. 

 8 Vol. II, p. 344. 

 » Vol. IJ, p. 340. 



