SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



209 



Decrt-tw in ni:r of I'nbilof Island seal skinx, 1885-1389. 



Mr. Alfred Frascr. of Messrs. ('. M. Lamps.m \ Co.. of London.] 



The lessees of the seal islands have been unable during the last three 

 years to secure the most desirable sizes of skins, owing to diminished 

 number of seals, the result of illicit killing by marauders. 



The decrease in the size of skins taken by lessees is in proportion to 

 the increase of numbers caught by the marauders. 



LOSS OF FEMALE SEALS. 



British and American testimony. 



[Extract from letter of Sir George Baden-Powell, published in the London Times November 30, 1889.] 



As a matter of fact the Canadian sealers take very few, if any, seals 

 close to the islands. Their main catch is made far out at sea, and is 

 almost entirely composed of females. (Case of the United States, 

 p. 200, and Senate Ex. Doc. No. 55, Fifty-second Congress, first session, 

 p. 96.) 



[Extract from letter of Rear- Admiral Hotham, of the British navy, to Admiralty.] 



WARSPITE, at Esquimau, September 10, 1890. 



I have to request you will bring to the notice of the Lords Commis- 

 sioners of Admiralty this letter with reference to my telegram of the 

 8th instant. 



I personally saw the masters of the sealing schooners named below, 

 and obtained from them the information here reported: Capt. C. Cox, 

 schooner Sapphire; Captain Petit, schooner Mary Taylor; Captain 

 Hackett, schooner Annie Seymour; Capt. W. Cox, schooner Triumph. 

 ******* 



They also mentioned that two-thirds of their catch consisted of female 

 seals, but that after the 1st of July very few indeed were captured " in 

 pup," and that when sealing outside the Bering Sea, round the coast, 

 on the way up (where this year the heaviest catches were made), they 

 acknowledged that the seals "in pup" were frequently captured. 

 (Extract from Vol. Ill, Appendix to Case of Great Britain, cited in 

 United States, No. 1, 1891, p. 17.) 



There were killed this year so far from 40,000 to 50,000 fur seals, 



which have been taken by schooners from San Francisco and Victoria. 



The greater number were killed in Bering Sea, and were nearly all cows 



or female seals. This enormous catch, with the increase which will 



S. Doc. 137, pt. 1 14 



