INVESTMENTS. 279 



and 643 whites? In Londou, as has been shown, Employes in 



Canada and Lon- 



from two to three thousand persons are employed <ion. 

 in the sealskin industry; it is safe, therefore, to 

 say that nearly three times as many people are 

 dependent upon the sealskin industry in Lon- 

 don alone as are employed in the pelagic seal- 

 hunting business in Canada. The average wages 

 per week paid to those employed in the British 

 industry are about 305.,' or £190,000 ($947,700) 

 per annum to the 2,500 employe's. According 

 to the Canadian Report for 1890, above cited, 

 the gross receipts derived from the sealskins 

 taken by the Victoria fleet were $492,261, the 

 catch being sold at inflated prices because of the 

 small number of skins obtained on the Pribilof 

 Islands, the average price per skin in 1889, for 

 the Northwest catch, in London, being only 

 395. 5d.^ ($9.58). It is evident, therefore, that 

 the annual gross receipts of Canada from pelagic 

 sealing are only about half of the sum annually 

 paid out for wages by London houses engaged 

 in the sealskin industry. 



In comparino- the Canadian venture with the X'U"^.*^,^^."^^* 



J- ^ and United States. 



United States industry the contrast is even more 

 striking. It has already been shown that the 

 furriers, manufacturers, and merchants of the 



1 IMd. (1891), p. Lxxxv. 



2Emil Teichmanu, Vol. II, p. 582; W. E. Martin, Vol. IT, p. 5G8.. 



3 Alfred Eraser, Vol. II, p. 562. 



