172 



universal complaint. It was quite clear, however, that 

 Chili, who was making great progress in every way, had 

 recognised the evil, and had now taken steps to protect this 

 most important industry. 



Mr. BlRKBECK, M.P., then moved a vote of thanks to Sir 

 John Rose, for presiding. Although he might be some- 

 what disappointed at seeing so small an audience, the Exe- 

 cutive Committee felt very strongly the great importance 

 of these discussions. The object of the Committee was 

 that all the papers read at these Conferences, and the 

 discussions, whether short or long, should be fully reported, 

 and they Would appear in the official report, at the con- 

 clusion of the Exhibition. Many of the Foreign Commis- 

 sioners had told him how valuable these discussions would 

 be in an international point of view. The paper now read 

 was one of very great interest to him, though Captain 

 Temple had not referred to the seal fisheries, where he 

 (Mr. Birkbeck) had once spent a whole summer, namely, in 

 Spitzbergen. There the seals were not hunted so much for 

 the sake of their fur, being a much larger kind, from eight 

 to ten or twelve feet long, and they were captured for the 

 sake of the oil. He could quite corroborate what had been 

 said as to the great difficulty of catching these seals from 

 their exceeding shyness. At Spitzbergen the only way to 

 take them was by shooting them with a rifle from a boat, 

 and they were always found in ice-bergs, in flow ice. The 

 great difficulty was that there was always a slight swell, 

 and while you were aiming at the seal, probably, the boat 

 was rising with the swell whilst the ice, with the seal on 

 it was very likely falling at the same time ; if you did 

 not shoot the seal through the brain you might row as 

 hard as you could, but he was certain to be lost. 



Mr. EARLL (United States Commissioner), seconded the 



