368 REPORTS OF BERING SEA COMMISSI ON. 



Letter of c. M. recogiiized as a liigli authority on tliis qiiestioii. 



Lampson & Co. 



Referring to the regular supply of fur-seals that 

 had for many years come into the market from 

 the vicinity of Vancouver Island, they remark : 

 " The quantity, we should say, has averaged 

 at least ten thousand per annum. This catch 

 takes place in the months of Mai'ch and April, 

 and we believe that the animals from which 

 these skins are derived are females of the Alaska 

 seals, just the same as those caught in the Bering 

 Sea. Had this quantity been materially in- 

 creased we feel sure that the breeding on tlie 

 Pribilof Islands would have suffered more before 

 now, but, fortunately, the catch must necessarily 

 be a limited one, owing to the stormy time of the 

 year at which it is made and the dangerous 

 coast where the seals, only for a short time, are 

 foun.d. It must, however, be evident that if 

 these animals were followed into the Bering 

 Sea and hunted down in a calm sea in the quiet- 

 est months of the year, a practically unlimited 

 quantity of females might be taken, and, as you 

 say, it would be only a few years till the Alaska 

 seal was a thing of the past." (Extract from a 

 letter addressed to C. A. Williams, esq., August 

 22, 1888.) 



