THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 119 



With regard to the manner in which fur-sealiug was carried on then, we find in the Encyclopaedia Britannica 

 the following facts: 



From about the year 18Q6 till 1823 an extensive trade was carried on in the South seas in procuring seal-skins. These were obtained 

 in vast abundance by the first traders, and yielded a very large profit. The time was when cargoes of those skins yielded $5 or $6 a piece 

 in China, and the present price in the English market averages from SO to 50 shillings per skin. The number of skins brought off from 

 Georgia cannot be estimated at fewer than 1,'^00,000 ; the island of Desolation has been equally productive, and, in addition to the vast sums 

 of rnouey which these creatures have yielded, it is calculated that several thousand tons of shipping have annually been employed in the 

 traffic.' 



EXTERMINATION, THE RESULT. This gives a very fair idea of the manner in which the business was conducted 

 in the South Pacific. How long would our sealing interests in Bering sea withstand the attacks of such a fleet of 

 sixty vessels, carrying from twenty to thirty men each? Not over two seasons. The fact that these great southern 

 rookeries withstood and paid for attacks of this extensive character during a period of more than twenty years, 

 speaks eloquently of the millions upon millions that must have existed in the waters now almost deserted by them. 



EARLY AUTHORITIES ON THE APPEARANCE OF THE FUR-SEAL. Whenever I have followed the records made 

 by navigators of any one of these several islauds in the Antarctic, from whence hundreds of thousands of fur-seals 

 are said to have been annually taken, I have never found anything in the line of circumstantial evidence of the 

 fact. For instance, had any vast rookery, such as is the one at Northeast point, St* Paul island, been in existence 

 at Masafuera or Juan Fernandez, when they were visited by William Dampier in 1683 by Wood-Rogers in 1709 

 in 1740 and 1767 by Anson and Carteret, surely the extraordinary spectacle, must have provoked their attention 

 and description. So far from hinting at any such congregation of massed seal life on the land, they, on the 

 contrary, have more to say in regard to the wild goats which they found there, with the single exception of 

 Dampier. Those were the progeny of the original stock left on the islands by Spanish pirates, long before (1563-'66). 

 I select these two islands for especial reference in this connection, because they had been well known to seamen 

 before the hunting of the fur-seal was a recognized business, and desciibed by them. According to the accounts 

 of the sealers, they were the source ofseveral of the largest cargoes of fur-seal skins that were ever taken from any 

 one or two places south of the equator. 



ANSON'S VOYAGE, 1740-'41. The best description of Juan Fernandez written prior to the ravages of the seal- 

 huuting fleet (1SOO-'13), is the personal account made of it by Richard Walter, the chaplain to Lord Alison's flagship, 

 the "Centurion", who lived ashore there for three months, June to September, 1741. Alison's fleet of seven 

 caravels" was dispersed by a fearful storm in rounding the Horn, and the crews well-nigh exterminated by scurvy. 

 Only four of the vessels succeeded in joining him here, which was the preordained rendezvous; and the ninety 

 days in camp at Juan Fernandez wen- passed in recuperation of the men and refitting the shattered ships. 



REMARKABLE PHYSICAL CONTRAST BETWEEN ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC ROOKERIES. I offer this description, 

 by Chaplain Walter, of these celebrated southern sealing-grouuds, as an interesting statement for comparison with 

 that which I have given of the Pribylov group. Certainly the ultra difference in natural character between St. Paul 

 and St. George at the north, and Crusoe's isle and Masafuera on the south, is strongly defined and remarkable. 

 The ground-trailing, or creeping willow (Salix reticulata) of Bering sea is the only tree or shrub that the fur-seal can 

 rub against on the Pribylov islands; but his southern brother is acquainted with the shadow of the cabbage palm. 

 The following is a copy of Walter's picture, drawn from life, and it is a very graphic one: 



DESCRIPTION OF JUAN FERNANDEZ. However, on the 10th of June, iu the afternoon, we got under the lee of the island, and kept 

 ranging along it at about two miles' distance, in order to look out for the proper anchorage, which was described to be in a bay on the 

 north side. Being now nearer in with the store, we could discover that the broken, craggy precipices, which had appeared so unpromising 

 at a distance, were far from barren, being in most places covered with woods, and that between them there were everywhere interspersed 

 the finest valleys, covered with a most beautiful verdure, and watered with numerous streams and cascades, no valley of any kind being 

 unprovided with its proper rill. * At four in the morning our cntter was dispatched with our third lieutenant to 



find out the bay we were in search of, who returned again at noon with the boat laden with seals and grass, for although the island 

 alioiinded with better vegetables, yet the boat's crew iu their short stay had not met with them, and they well knew that even grass 

 would prove a dainty, as, indeed, it was all soon eagerly devoured. [They were ill with scurvy. II. W. K.] The seals, too, were 

 considered as fresh provision, but as yet were not much admired, though they grew afterward into more repute, for what rendered them 

 ]<-ss valuable at this juncture was the prodigious quantity of excellent fish which the people aboard had taken during the absence of the 

 boat. 



The island of Juan Fernandez lies in the latitude of 33 40' south, and it is a hundred and ten leagues distant from the continent 

 of Chili. It is said to have received its name from a Spaniard who formerly procured a granl of it, and resided there some time with a 

 view of settling on it, but afterward abandoned it. * * * The island is of an irregular figure. jj s greatest 

 1-xte.nt is between four and five leagues, and its greatest breadth somewhere short of two leagues; the only safe anchorage at this island 

 is at the north side. 



The northern part of this island is composed of high, craggy hills, many of them inaccessible, though generally covered with trees; 

 the soil of this part is loose and shallow, so that very large trees on the hills soon perish for want of root, and are then easily overturned. 

 * * * The southern, or rather the southwestern part of the island, as distinguished in the plan, is widely different from the rest, being 

 dry. stony, and destitute of trees, and very flat and low compared with the hills on the northern part. This part of the island is never 

 fre. i uemed by ships, being surrounded by a steep shore, and having little or no fresh water, and besides it is exposed to the southerly 

 wind, which generally blows here the whole ycaf round, and on the winter solstice very hard. 



"Elliott: Condition of Affairs in Alaska, p. 261. 



