REPORT OF AMERICAN COMMISSIONERS. 369 



Essentially the same view is held by so well Opinion of sir 



George Ludcu- 



known an authority as Sir George Baden-Powell, Powell, 

 after having visited the western coast and thor- 

 oughly investigated the question, as he says, 

 from the point of view of natural history, in a 

 letter written by him to the London Times in 

 November, 1889. Among other things, relating 

 to the Bering Sea question, he says: "As a 

 matter of fact, the Canadian sealers take very 

 few, if any, seals close to these islands. Their 

 main catch is made far out at sea and is almost 

 entirely composed of females." 



In addition to evidence of this kind, the tiio London 



Trade Sales, 



records of the London Trade Sales may be 

 cited. In these the pelagic catch in Bering Sea 

 and the North Pacific is quoted under the title 

 "Northwest Coast," and the character of the 

 skins is conclusively shown by the fact that 

 their market price is invariably very much lower 

 than that of the island catch quoted under the 

 title of "Alaska skins." 



An important element in determining the Waste or life, 

 effect of pelagic sealing is its wastefulness, 

 growing out of the loss of many seals at sea 

 by their being wounded so that they either die 

 and sink at once or escape without being taken, 

 only to die soon after. When female seals are 

 271G 47 



