SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 207 



The annual average price paid for seal skins in Victoria from 1881 to 

 1889, inclusive, is as follows: 



Per skin. 



1881 $9.25 



1882 8.00 



1883.. .... 10.00 



Per skin, l Per skin. 



1884 $7.75 



1885 7.50 



1886.. 7.65 



1887 $5.50 



1888 5.62 



1889.. 6.50 



General average, $7.53 per skin. 



It. will be observed that the price of Victoria and Northwest coast 

 skins has decreased. This has resulted from the fact that it was found 

 by the London dressers that the skins of seals taken indiscriminately, 

 chiefly from females, in the water, did not compare favorably with those 

 taken from carefully selected young males on the islands. 



On the basis of the foregoing figures, the value of the fur seal trade, 

 as conducted by the Canadians, is surprisingly small. Their annual 

 catch at present prices is worth about $125,000, and the highest esti- 

 mated value of the tonnage engaged is only $200,000 amounts incom- 

 parably small in proportion to the loss that would be sustained by the 

 United States and England in case the seal fisheries were broken up, 

 as will inevitably result if the Canadian manner of killing is continued. 



The following is extracted from the report of United States Consul 

 Stevens, of Victoria, British Columbia, to the Department of State, in 

 June, 1889: 



Since the beginning of the present decade the hunting of the fur seal has been 

 vigorously pursued from this port. There are some 21 vessels, varying from 26 to 

 126 tons register (an aggregate tonnage of 1,737 tons), employing 458 meu, and 

 valued at about $126,000, engaged in hunting the fur seal. These vessels, some of 

 them having small steam power, leave here about the 1st of January and proceed 

 southward, returning in May.and landing the skins, taking some of them as far south 

 as San Diego, Cal., and along the coast up. They again leave for the north, going as 

 far as the Bering Sea, returning in September. The total catch for 1888 amounted to 

 26,720 skins, much smaller than for recent previous years. Of these, 14,987 were 

 reported as "the Bering Sea collection," the distinctive name given to those taken 

 far north, in the neighborhood of the Aleutian Islands, and claimed to be finer furs 

 than any other. 



These skins are sold here in bundles, salted to preserve them, and they may be 

 kept many months in that condition without injury. Ordinarily sales are made at 

 so much per skin for the lot; sometimes, however, they are sold in assortments of 

 males, females, and pups, the average price for the latter being $6 per skin. They 

 are shipped from here to London, where they are dressed and dyed, paying a duty 

 when they reach the United States, as they mostly do, of 30 percent on their then 

 value of about $22.50 per skin. 



During these years (1886-87) some eight of these vessels were seized in the north- 

 ern waters by the United States revenue cutters for violation of the law of July, 

 1870, "to prevent extermination of fur-bearing animals." No seizures were made 

 in 1888. 



