Il6 RUSSIAN 



this fishery upwards of 100,000 seals are caught annually. In one 

 night of 1846 they killed 1,300 seals on an island near the mouth of 

 the Oural. They are taken in three ways on the islands, by means 

 of nets, and in winter on the ice. 



In the Caspian Sea, they hunt the seals on the islands. They 

 land in boats while the seals are basking in the sun, and surround 

 them so that they have no chance of escape, killing them with large 

 cudgels. In this manner 10,000 seals are taken in one day. They 

 then cut off the head, skin the seal the fat adhering to the inner 

 part of the skin. The bodies are buried, or are taken some distance 

 and thrown into the sea. When not prejudicial to the other fishe- 

 ries the seals are also caught in nets. Hunting seals in the Caspian 

 in winter has lately been forbidden, as the young ones were killed in 

 great quanties, on account of their thick, silken furs, which being 

 white dyed easily, and the seals would have been exterminated. 



Seals abound in much greater quantities in the White v Sea, but, 

 nevertheless, there is not half the quantity of oil produced as in the 

 Caspian, on account of the greater difficulty in catching them, or 

 rather in transporting the bodies and skins of the animals. The 

 hunters have to take boats and provisions with them, and, in some 

 parts, when the seals are on the moving icebergs, and have to be 

 hunted and killed there, the chase is very hazardous, as it is difficult to 

 tell where the wiud may carry the iceberg ; if it should be towards 

 the ocean the hunters may perish from cold and want of food. They 

 have then no chance but to embark in their slight boats and seek 

 the land. In this chase they shoot the seals, and the men must be 

 very clever shots, for if a seal should only be wounded it utters a 

 cry which alarms the whole herd. Neither the discharge of guns, 

 nor yet the dead bodies of their companions can frighten the seal 

 like this cry which will at once spoil the whole chase. 



There is also a kind of dolphin of great size, and some importance 

 importance in the White Sea, where it is caught for the sake of its 

 oil, in large nets of thick cord. This fish is sometimes three or four 

 fathoms in length. The morse or bearded seal is caught near Nova- 

 Zembla. It is valued for its skin and teeth, besides the oil it pro- 

 duces, but it is caught in small numbers. The mode of extracting 

 the oil from the skins of these animals is to expose them in the sun, 

 when the oil trickles from them, and this produced is of the finest 

 quality. In one large establishment in Astrakhan 400,000 Ibs. of 

 oil are annually produced. The total value of Russian products 

 from the sea mammals cannot be less than ."83,300. 



March 2 1, 1868. 



My dear Sir, We have no certain data on which to offer a reliable 

 estimate of the total quantities and value of the fish annually caught 

 in the seas of the United Kingdom. I have prepared and sent you 



