372 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



of comparison it is necessary to include those taken by Indians in 1891, amounting 

 to 1,953, and this would raise the figure for 1891 to 45,614, showing a balance in favor 

 of that year, as against the total of 38,044 for 1894, of 7,570 skins. 



The collector of customs also points out that the number of British vessels engaged 

 during 1891 in sealing within the award area was 50, while, in 1894, 59 vessels were so 

 employed. 



According to the statement taken from the books of the United States custom- 

 house, no less than 41 United States vessels were engaged in the seal fishery during 

 1891, making a total for that year of 91, instead of 115, as stated in your note of Vis- 

 count Gough, above referred to. 



The total fleet mentioned in that note, for the year 1894, was 95 vessels. The deduc- 

 tion of 59 British vessels would leave the number of United States vessels at 36. 



It is, moreover, apparent that the catch of 1891 would have been still larger but 

 for the interference with and expulsion of sealing vessels from Bering Sea under the 

 modus vivendi. 



I have the honor, etc., 



JULIAN PAUNCEFOTE. 



Hon. R. OLNEY. 



Report by the collector of customs, Victoria, British Columbia, to the deputy minister of 

 marine and fisheries, Ottawa. 



CUSTOMS, CANADA, VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, 



February 20, 1S96. \ 



SIR : I have the honor to revert to your letters of the 19th of September and 10th of 

 December last, inclosing for my information an extract from a communication from 

 the United States Government touching the catch of seals as taken from the statistics 

 supplied through me. 



I beg leave to observe that the contention appears to be hinged on the relative 

 catches of the years 1891 and 1894, and that the British statement in the main is 

 that, notwithstanding the large take of 1894, that of 1891 was as large, so far as the 

 so-termed American herd was concerned. 



Before dealing with the subject, I beg to premise that I regret that I had to tabu- 

 late the figures of the seal catch for the year 1891 from the reports of the masters of 

 the several vessels as declared by them, to which no objection could be taken, as at 

 that time there was no information given in the vessel's log book as to the locality 

 or date of each fur seal fishing operation, the catch then being divided into three 

 periods, viz, the lower coast, the upper coast to Sand Point, and the Bering Sea, 

 and this division was made to agree with the landing periods when the skins were 

 taken or shipped home to his port. Thus, after the vessels had left their skins at 

 Sand Point, Alaska, to be shipped to Victoria, they included all seals taken there- 

 after as being from Bering Sea and adjacent waters; the imaginary water line 

 obviously arranged between the United States and Russia for other reasons than to 

 give dominion over any part of Bering Sea, other than territorial waters, was then 

 of little concern to our sealers, and thus, when they returned to their home port, the 

 declaration on their inward and special sealing report designated their entire catch 

 as being made in Bering Sea, without any regard to location, and the figures were so 

 regarded in our statistical books. 



The manifests and special reports of all British sealing vessels arriving back at 

 this port during the season of 1891, when compiled, gave the total catch as follows : 



Lower Coast catch 3,565 



Sand Point, or Upper Coast catch 17, 162 



Bering Sea catch 28,489 



Kurile Islands (Asiatic) catch 399 



Total 49,615 



Caught by Indians on British Coast 1,953 



Total skins for 1891 51,568 



These figures as given in the tabulated statements then supplied your department 

 are beyond conjecture, having been compiled with the greatest care, and the number 

 of skins landed also having been verified at the time by actual count by the local 

 customs officers. 



The promulgation of the modus vivendi of 1891 was an important feature in the his- 

 tory of the sealing industry, when a number of our British vessels were warned out 

 of the American side of Bering Sea, between the dates of 30th June and 16th August 

 of that year. 



