ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 299 



The greater part of the illegal killing is done with firearms, but some 

 of the vessels manned by Indians, and notably the Black Diamond, 

 seized this summer, are fitted only with spears, and these, skillfully 

 handled, are even more effective than guns, as they can be used with- 

 out alarming the neighboring seals. The crew of the Black Diamond 

 secured 143 skins in less than two days preceding her capture. It is 

 also regarded by old hunters as quite feasible to catch them still more 

 rapidly and surely by the use of seines and purse nets, though I am 

 not aware the attempt has as yet been made. 



The effect of this extensive and indiscriminate slaughter I have 

 already pointed out. If unrestricted killing is to be continued we have 

 no occasion to inquire in regard to any further franchise. The renewal 

 of the lease would hardly be worth taking as a gift, and with the assur- 

 ance of fullest protection against marauders and poachers, the fact 

 should not be lost sight of that under the most intelligent management 

 some years must elapse before the rookeries can be restored to their 

 former productiveness. The protection, too, must extend beyond Ber- 

 ing Sea and over the North Pacific to insure perpetuation of the indus- 

 try ; and ought, indeed, in order to make it complete, to include all the 

 waters along the British Columbia coast, for even the comparatively 

 small number killed there is no inconsiderable item to the lessees in the 

 present status of the rookeries. 



Different plans for the preservation of the seals are suggested: 



1. It is certainly in the interest of the whole world, excepting a few 

 Canadian seal hunters, that the seals should be propagated and killed 

 under proper restrictions. This is particularly true for the English, for 

 they have more capital invested in the business and more people 

 uependent upon the seal industry than any other nation. If. therefore, 

 a territorial limit can be denned beyond which no seals shall be killed 

 in the water, such limit being agreed upon by convention with England 

 and Russia, and acquiesced in by the powers that have nothing at 

 stake in the matter, protection will be afforded to such an extent as the 

 limit proves restrictive. My own idea is that it should cover all the 

 aquatic resorts of the seals, but if it be decided that British Columbia 

 hunters are right in killing seals in British Columbia waters, then the 

 limits might be defined, say, by restricting their operations to the east- 

 ward of longitude 153 west from Greenwich, to the southward of lati- 

 tude 54 north, and to the northward of Cape Flattery. If at the 

 same time restrictions are needed for the protection of Eussian inter- 

 ests in the Northwestern Pacific, similar limitations, as the facts may 

 indicate, maybe marked out and seal life respected at all points beyond 

 such limits. 



2. If restriction by territorial limitation is likely to be difficult to 

 enforce, or if for any other reason it appears objectionable, a close season 

 could be agreed upon by convention within which no seals should be 

 killed in the water. Such season should begin, if it be determined to 

 allow seals to be killed in British Columbia waters, at about the time 

 when the seals leave the vicinity of Vancouver Island in the spring and 

 continue until the next winter, say about the middle of May until about 

 the 1st of February. 



3. To facilitate the enforcement of the regulation, both the territorial 

 limitation and close season might be adopted. The vast extent of 

 water to be patrolled, and the eagerness with which the seals are pur- 

 sued, make it necessary to throw every possible safeguard around them 

 if they are to be preserved. 



It would unquestionably be unwise, from a financial point of view, on 



