P A R T 1 1. 



FUR-SHAI. HUNTING IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. 



By Dr. J. A. Allen. 



Fur-seals formerly existed in great numbers along portions of tlie 

 soutliern coasts of Soutli America, South Africa, Australia, and New 

 Zealand, on the outlying islands off these coasts, and also on many of 

 the pelagic islands of tlie southern oceans. Seal hunting for commer- 

 cial purposes began here dviring the closing decades of the last century, 

 and as early as the beginning of the present century the industry had 

 assumed gigantic proportions. The skins at this time, and for many 

 years after, were taken to the Canton market and exchanged for teas, 

 silks, and other well-known products of the Chinese Empire. The 

 price obtained for the skins was small in comparison to their value in 

 later years, usually ranging from 50 cents to $4 or $5 per skin. Yet 

 the sealing business pro^'ed immensely profitable, and led to an indis- 

 (triminate and exterminating slaughter. One after another of the popu- 

 lous seal rookeries was visited and reduced to the verge of extermina- 

 tion, followed by new voyages of discovery in search of new sealing 

 grounds, which in turn were quickly despoiled. Every seal that could 

 be obtained was killed, regardless of age or sex. The fur-seals gen- 

 erally selected for their homes barren, volcanic islands, situated in 

 stormy seas, often inaccessible except to the most venturesome, skillful, 

 and hardy seamen. The seals that escaped the hunters usually owed 

 their preservation to the inaccessibility of their haunts. 



Sealing first began in tlie southern hemisphire at the Falkland Is- 

 lands about 1784. The immense fur-seal rookeries at ^. ^^^ 

 the islands of Mas a-Fuera and Juan Fernandez were ^^ °'^' 

 first visited in 1793, where millions were taken during the next fifteen 

 years. In the year 1800 the South Georgian rookeries were attacked 

 and si>eedily exhausted. In 1801 the sealing fleet at this island num- 

 bered thirty vessels, while an equal number of vessels were employed 

 during the same year in sealing off the coast of Chile. At about this 

 date sealing began on the Patagonian coast, in the archipelago of Ti- 

 erra del Fuego,"at St. Marys Island, oft' the coast of Chile, and at the 

 Saint Felix group. In 1803 and 1801 voyages were made to the coast 

 of Australia, Borders Island, and the Antipodes. In 1804-1800 seal 

 rookeries were discovered at the Crozet and Prince Edward Islands. 

 In 1820 the immense wealth of Seal life at the South Shetlands was dis- 

 covered and the Seals nearly exterminated in a single season. At the 

 Auckland Islands sealing began to be vigorously prosecuted in 1822 

 and 1823. At these and numerous less noted fur-seal resorts sealing 

 has been intermittently prosecuted from the date of their discovery till 

 the present time, although of late years the catch has been small and 

 in many instances the vessels have made losing voyages. At most of 

 50 sas 



