REPORT. 179 



average, for each skin : some have been brought to this country* 

 and sold for domestic uses. The Stonington Telegraph mentions 

 the extent of the seal-trade in that small place, which shows the 

 enterprise of that industrious people in a very strong light. From 

 November, 1819, to August, 1827, there were seventeen vessels 

 which belonged to this port, and which brought, as an item of 

 their cargo, skins, which were sold at auction, to the amount of 

 three hundred and ten thousand seven hundred and forty-seven 

 dollars and eight cents ; and these skins were mostly taken in 

 a high latitude. Let it also be remembered, that this is a 

 mere item, made tangible from having been sold at auction ; and 

 that this amount of skins,.exchanged in Canton for teas, would 

 bring into the public treasury an amount, on the first return, 

 greatly surpassing what would be necessary to send out an 

 efficient exploring expedition. 



The demand for this fur is increasing in this country, as the 

 seals are diminishing in the Pacific. New islands must be found, 

 where they have not as yet been disturbed, to furnish a supply 

 for the market. The hunting of the whale and seal, heretofore 

 carried on with so much vigour, has produced the natural and 

 necessary consequence of rendering those animals more timid, 

 and fewer in number, by their destruction, without reference to 

 season. These animals as naturally and instinctively leave the 

 haunts of the whalers and sealers, and retire to the more remote 

 regions, as the wild-game of the west recede before the advances 

 of the sturdy backwoodsman. They can be followed, and found 

 in greater abundance, and taken with less uncertainty and risk. 

 The results of late voyages prove that they can be procured with 

 great facility in the remote polar regions. Captain Parry, with 

 great profit to the British nation, opened a new channel for their 

 trade, by transferring their fisheries from East to West Greenland. 

 He says the number of whales in those high latitudes was aston- 

 ishing ; that not less than fifty were seen in a single watch. 



