240 CARNIVORA PINNIPEDIA. 



requirements of the government, to get their own American- 

 made garments back into this country after taking them 

 abroad. There need be no trouble on this score however 

 if American going abroad will take their sealskin gar- 

 ments to the custom house at the port of departure before 

 leaving and have them registered, receiving at the same 

 time an order for their re-entry into this country. 



Pelagic sealing is carried on by well-appointed 

 schooners, and other vessels. When the Seals are sighted, 

 swimming or sleeping in the water, small boats are lowered 

 and the hunters are rowed to the sealing-ground by the 

 sailors. The percentage killed is very small, for in a great 

 majority of cases the Seal will take alarm and dive before 

 the hunter can get within range; and even when a Seal is 

 shot it commences to sink so quickly that the boat has to 

 be pulled very rapidly up to the carcass if it is to be gaffed 

 and pulled abroad. At the end of the day's hunt the 

 boats return to the vessel, and the Seals are skinned and 

 the pelts salted and laid away in the hold. 



While the headquarters of the Northern Sea Bears are 

 on the Pribilov Islands, these animals are also found in 

 other parts of the Bering Sea ; and on both shores of the 

 North Pacific, as far south as Victoria on the American 

 side, and the island of Saghalien on the other. Thus it will 

 be seen that the Alaska, Copper Island, Victoria, Robben 

 Island and Japan Seals are all species of the same genus; 

 differing in quality, color, form and size, according to 

 locality and sex, but having the same disposition and 

 habits. 



"Victoria" Seals, being the females of the same 

 species, are of course much smaller than Alaska Seals, and 

 the fur, though beautiful to look at, is less durable than 

 that on the skins of bachelor Seals ; and the money value 

 of the skins, figured inch for inch, is about one-third less 

 than that of the bachelor skins taken on the Pribilov 

 Islands. 



Copper Island Seals, breed on the Commander Islands, 

 about two hundred miles east of Kamschatka. Their habits 

 are identical with those of the Alaska Seals, of the Pribilov 

 Islands, and some authorities claim that they are the same 

 species in a different locality. However that may be 

 although some of the Copper Island skins are very fine, 



