400 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



Of the amount of skins received by the vessels (4,710) one-third was given by the Indians to 

 the schooners which conveyed them and their canoes to the sealing ground, amounting to 1,570 

 skins. The remainder, say 3,140 skins, belonging to the Indians, added to the number sold to the 

 traders independent of the catch of the schooners, i. e., 1,558 skins, makes 4,698 which the Indians 

 sold to the traders for cash and trade. At an average of $9 per skin, these netted the handsome 

 amount of $42,282, which, divided among 232 Indians who were engaged in the business, gives a 

 little over $182 each for the season's work. 



The success of the vessels engaged the past season will induce many others to embark in the 

 business another season, and already preparations are making to secure vessels of a better class 

 for the next season's work, which will commence late in December or early in January, 1881. The 

 first seals taken this season were killed by Indians on the 18th day of January, 1880 ; during that 

 month sixty-nine seals were taken. The schooners did not commence until February. 



3. THE ANTARCTIC FUR-SEAL AND SEA-ELEPHANT INDUSTRY. 



By A. HOWARD CLARK. 

 1. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANTARCTIC SEAL FISHERIES. 



THE EXTENT OP THE FISHERY IN THE LAST CENTURY. American vessels first crossed the 

 equator in search of whales about the year 1774. A few years later they cruised along the South 

 American coast as far as Patagonia and in the vicinity of the Tristan and Falkland Islands. At 

 both of these islands fur and hair seals and sea-elephants were then very numerous. The whalers 

 occasionally killed some seals and brought home seal oil as part of their cargoes. Soon after the 

 Revolutionary war a Boston lady named Haley was led to bear the expense of fitting out the ship 

 States for a voyage to the Falklands for hair-seal skins and sea-elephant oil. This was the first 

 vessel, so far as known, that ever sailed from an American port especially equipped lor engaging 

 in the seal fishery, and originated an industry that for thirty or forty years was of much import- 

 ance to the New England fishing ports. 



From the manuscript diary of Eben Townsend, supercargo of the ship Neptune, that made a 

 very profitable fur-sealing voyage from 1797 to 1799, we gather some valuable information concern- 

 ing the commencement of this seal fishery. The diary begins by narrating the particulars of the 

 voyage from the date of leaving New York until arriving at the Falkland Islands, where they 

 began the fur-seal hunt. They anchored in States Harbor, which Mr. Townsend says " derived 

 its name from a ship of that name which lay here two years to obtain sea-elephant oil and hair- 

 seal skins. She was a very large ship, towards 1,000 tons, from Boston, fitted from there soon 

 after the Revolutionary war, and the first ship that we know of that took any fur-seal skins. She 

 was owned by Lady Haley, living in Boston. They took about 13,000 fur-sea) skins as an experi- 

 ment, which were sold in New York at about half a dollar each, their value not being known, and 

 were thought by some to be sea-otter skins. They were afterwards taken to Calcutta and sold 

 there as sea-otters. From Calcutta they were taken to Canton by Captain Metcalf, from New York, 

 who started from the United States about the same time tliat Captain Kendricks sailed from 

 Boston. In Canton these skins were sold at about $5 each. Captain Metcalf carried out the first 

 seal-skins; and he with Kendricks, from Boston, were the first adventurers from the United 

 States to the northwest coast of America after sea-otter skins. Kendricks was killed in receiv- 



