PART III. 



THE ALASKAN FUR-SEAL AND PELAGIC SEALING. 



By J. A. Allen. 



By request of tlie Secretary of State of the United States I have ex- 

 amined the report of the Commissioners appointed by the President in 

 1891 to investigate the subject of the fur-seal industry as conducted 

 at the Pribilof Ishxuds, and the influence of jJelagic seal hunting in its 

 relation thereto; also the numerous affidavits relating to the same sub- 

 jects obtained by the Dei^artment of State from former United States 

 Treasury agents in charge of the sealing industry at the said islands; 

 from agents of the Alaskan Commercial, the North American Commer- 

 cial, and the Russian Sealskin Companies; from officers of the United 

 States Ee venue Marine ; from rj asters of sealing schooners and seal 

 hunters engaged in pelagic sealing, and from the leading dealers and 

 experts in the fur-seal trade, as well as the history of many now ex- 

 tinct fur-seal fisheries. I have also examined the reports, statistics, 

 affidavits, and arguments contained in the Blue Books published by 

 command of Her Britannic Majesty numbered C.-G131 (1890), C.-6308 

 (1891), C.-0633 (1892), C.-6634 (1892), and C.-6635 (1892), and the An- 

 nual Keports of the Department of Fisheries of the Dominion of Can- 

 ada for the years 1885 to 1891, inclusive; in view of all which evi- 

 dence and testimonies I submit the following statement in relation to 

 the principal points of the subject: 



1. The true home of the fur-seals of the eastern waters of the North 

 Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea is the Pribilof group of ^^ 

 islands in Bering Sea. It is to these islands that the 

 Seals repair amuially to breed, and there is no evidence that they breed 

 elsewhere than on these islands. It is evident, from what we know of 

 seal life elsewhere^ that were the climate suihciently mild in winter 

 they would undoubtedly pass the whole year at these islands. Owing, 

 however, to the inclemency of the winter months the ,^. ,. ^ , 



,. ,' ,, -,. . "^ , .-, -, . IP Migration of seals. 



lur-seals are lorced to migrate southward in search oi 

 food and a milder climate. Some of the males, however, especially the 

 bachelors, are known to remain about the islands, particularly in mild 

 winters, nearly the whole year. Generally the greater part move south- 

 ward and eastward to some point south of the Aleutian chain. They 

 leave the Pribilof Islands much later in autumn than the females and 

 young seals, and return thither much earlier in spring. The males in 

 returning northward in spring evidently pass, in the main, much further 

 from the coast than the females, and their northward migration is more 

 rapid and direct. 



The females on leaving the islands in the autumn move gradually 

 southward as far at least as the coast of California, where they were 

 formerly often seen in large numbers in January and February. Later 

 in the season they proceed gradually northward, passing generally quite 



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