REPORT OF AMERICAN COMMISSIONERS. 373 



it is practically impossible to prevent, would Comparison of 



sealing 01) laud aud 



quickly render such restriction valueless. As at sea. 

 long as hunting was profitable it would be fol- 

 lowed, and the profit considered would be that 

 which is immediate. Hundreds of schooners 

 under private direction would have little thought 

 of the good of the many, and the effort of every 

 individual would be to take as many seals as 

 possible during the season, regardless of sex, age, 

 or condition, for next year there may be no seals 

 to take. 



Either pelagic sealing or killing on land must 

 bear the responsibility for the decadence in seal 

 life which has taken place during the last few 

 years, and this decadence is known to have 

 occurred contemporaneously with the develop- 

 ment of pelagic sealing from a comparatively 

 trifling industry (practiced mostly by Indians 

 and confined almost entirely to the North Pacific 

 coast) to its present magnitude, such that, despite 

 the presence of a considerable fleet of vessels of 

 both the United States and Great Britain patrol- 

 ling Bering Sea to declare it unlawful and to 

 arrest those engaged in it, a pelagic catch of 

 over sixty thousand seals was had in a single 

 season. In view of this fact, and of the careful Decrease of herd 



caused by pelagic 



comparison which we have made of the two ^°'^^^'^°" 

 methods of taking seals, on land and at sea, and 



