176 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



Mncb has been said of the legality of pelagic sealing, and to this wc take no 

 exception. Pelagic sealing is perfectly legal, bnt this legality was fixed by a tribnnal 

 which was so confused by false testimony and ignorant and worthless athdavits, that, 

 while attempting to formnlate measures for the protection of the seals, it legalized 

 the very cause of their destruction. But the whitewash of respectability which was 

 thus put upon pelagic sealing can not hide its true character. Judged by its methods 

 and results, it is merely a species of legalized barbarism, relagic sealing is simply 

 a public nuisance which can now only be disjwsed of by an international agreement. 



THE PROHIBITION OF PELAGIC SEALING TO AMERICANS. 



It is with a great sense of relief that we liud ourselves able to record the recent 

 action of Congress in the prohibition of the practice of pelagic sealing by our own 

 citizens and the exclusion of skins of females from our markets. This step should 

 have been taken long ago. It must be remembered that until the passage of this 

 law' Americans as well as Canadians have been engaged in slaughtering the fur 

 seals. Of the 87 vessels which took seals during the season of 1896, 21 were American. 

 And not only have our citizens helped to destioy our own herd, but they have crossed 

 the Pacific and have been instrumental in depleting the herd of friendly Russia. 

 American enterprise has also had the leading i)art in the practical extermination of 

 the fur-seal rookeries of the Kuril Islands, belonging to Japan. 



PELAGIC SEALING DISTINCTLY A CANADIAN INDUSTRY." 



Henceforth, however, onr hands are clean and we can with dignity and assurance 

 urge that other nations take steps to put au end to the business. Pelagic .sealing^- 

 with its slaughter of gravid females and the starvation of their dependent young, 

 with its waste of a noble and valuable animal life, with its threatened destruction 

 of varied and important commercial enterprises and of the sole source of supply of a 

 commodity of ntility and value to mankind — is from this time on distinctly a Canadian 

 industry and under the fostering care of Great Britain. If she permits its continuance, 

 the odium must rest with her. 



' See text of this law iu Appendix II to the report. 



