118 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



Those taken on the islands, it is hardly necessary to say, were young 

 males the surplus males of the herd, those taken at sea were taken 

 indiscriminately, without regard to sex, and were mostly gravid females 

 or nursing mothers whose young perished too. 



The official figures for the PribiloC Islands catch are taken from the 

 Treasury agents' annual reports on tile in the Department. The official 

 figures of the pelagic catch are based on the reports of the collectors of 

 customs at San Francisco, Astoria, Port Townsend, and other ports 

 in the United States, and at Victoria, British Columbia, and, for some 

 of the years, from the London trade sales of pelagic skins. 



There is every reason to believe that the real number of pelagic skins 

 taken during the five years last named aggregate 500,000, and if we 

 consider the loss sustained by the wounding and sinking of seals that 

 are never secured, the numbers would run up to three-quarters of a 

 million destroyed, lost to the United States, in live years. 



But let us take only what are given officially as entered in United 

 States and Victoria (British Columbia) custom houses, 394,222, and 

 allow that only 50 per cent of them were females, or, say, 200,000 

 mothers, one-half of whose pups were "cutout alive" and thrown over- 

 board at sea, and the other half of whose pups starved to death on the 

 rookeries, then the account would run thus: 



Male seals killed 194, 222 



Gravid females 100, 000 



Pups " cut out of same " 100, 000 



Mothers iu milk 100, 000 



Pups starved on rookeries 100, 000 



Total 594, 222 



But coming back once more to the bare official figures as given by 

 the collectors of customs, what do they teach us? 



They show on their face that the pelagic sealers are reaping the 

 wealth of the seal herd while the United States are paying all the 

 expenses; that during the existence of the modus vivendi, when it was 

 agreed that all parties should cease killing seals until an impartial 

 inquiry and investigation could be made, the United States lived up to 

 the agreement, and the pelagic sealer increased his fleet and killed more 

 seals than he ever killed before. 



In 1890, on the discovery of the decrease on the rookeries, we imme- 

 diately reduced our catch from the regular annual quota of 100,000 to 

 20,995, but the pelagic sealer continued on his cruise and captured in 

 the whole North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea 51,814 skins. 



In 1891 our catch amounted to 13,482; the pelagic sealer, in spite of 

 pledge, promise, law, and two armed fleets, captured nearly 70.000. 



In 1892, with the modus vivendi thoroughly understood by our agents 

 on the islands, we took 7,549 seals to feed the natives of the seal islands 

 as per agreement with Great Britain, and the pelagic sealer, in defiance 

 of all law, took 73,394. 



In 1893, still abiding by the terms of the modus vivendi, we took 

 7,500, and the pelagic sealer took 109,000. (These figures include seals 

 killed OD the Asiatic side of the North Pacific Ocean.) 



It was in 1893 the Tribunal of Arbitration met at Paris, and, after 

 carefully reviewing the whole situation and the questions at issue, a 

 decision was rendered and regulations suggested for the settlement of 

 the Bering Sea question and for the protection of the fur seals. 



The full text of the award will be found in the Appendix. 



With the Tribunal of Arbitration, and the questions of national and 



