188 PELAGIC SEALING. 



Vessels used, from tliG area covered by a canoe trip of twenty 

 miles from a given point on the coast^ to the 

 waters frequented by the migrating herd from 

 the Columbia River to Kadiak Island.^ In 1883 

 the schooner San Biego entered Bering Sea and 

 returned to Victoria with upwards of two thou- 

 sand skins. This gave impetus to the trade, and 

 new vessels embarked in the enterprise.^ 



introdnjctioii of About 1885 a new method of hunting was 



firearms. • , n i i • i i i ^ ,> 



introduced, which has been the great cause oi 

 making pelagic seal hunting so destructive and 

 wasteful of life — the use of firearms.* White 

 men now became the principal hunters, and 

 where previously the number of skilled and 

 available sealers had necessarily been limited 

 to a few hundred coast natives, the possibility 

 of lar^e rewards for their labors induced manv 

 whites to enter the service of those engaged in 

 the business of seal destruction. From that time 

 forward the sealing fleet rapidly increased in 

 number,^ until it now threatens the total extinc- 

 tion of the noi'thern fur-seal. 



1 Peter Brown, Vol. II, p. 377 ; Alfred Irving, Vol. II, p. 386 ; Wil- 

 son Parker, Vol. II, p. 392 ; Hisli Yulla, Vol. II, p. 397. 



2 Peter Brown, Vol. II, p. 377. 



3 Morris Moss, Vol. II, p. 3il. 



< Charlie, Vol. II, p. 304; Moses, Vol. II, p. 309; Wispoo, Vol. II, 

 p. 396. 

 6 Ante, p. 183; Gi istave Niebaum, Vol. II, p. 78. 



