PUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 17 



This scattered group of small rocks and islets, iiuiuliabited and entirely 

 arid, was fifty years ago resorted to by a very considerable number of 

 these animals, Arctoccphalus australis^ together with many sea lions, 

 Otaria hoolcri. Great numbers were then taken by those sealers, who 

 found to their sorrow, when the skins were inspected, that they were thin- 

 furred and worthless. A few survivors, however, remain to this day. 



Along and oft" the coast of Chile and Bolivia are the St. Felix, Juan 

 Fernandez, and Ma'safuera islands, the latter place being one of the 

 most celebrated rookeries known to southern sealers. The west coast of 

 Patagonia and a portion of that of Terra del Fuego was in those early 

 days of seal hunting, and is to-day, the finest connected range of seal- 

 rookery ground in the south. Here was annually made the concen- 

 trated attack of that sealing fleet above referred to ; and one can readily 

 understand how thorough must have been its labor, as he studies the 

 great extent and deep indentation of this coast, its thousand and one 

 islands and islets, and when he knows to-day that there is scarcely a 

 bunch of fur seals known to exist there. The Falkland Islands, just 

 abreast of the Straits of Magellan, were also celebrated and a favorite 

 resort, not only of the sealers, but for the whale fleets of the world. 

 They are recorded, in the brief mention made by the best authority, as 

 fairly swarming with fur seals when they were opened up by Captain 

 Cook. There are to-day, in the place of the hundreds of thousands 

 that once existed, an insignificant number, taken notice of only now 

 and then. 



The Georgia Islands and the Sandwich grouj), all a succession of 

 rocky islands and reefs awash — the South Orkneys, the Shetlands, the 

 Auckland group, Campbell Island, Emerald Island, and a few islets 

 lying just to the southward of New Zealand — have all been places of 

 lively and continued butchery, the fur seals ranging in desperation 

 from one of those places to the other as the seasons progressed and 

 the merciless search and slaughter continued. These pinnipeds, how- 

 ever, never went to the southward of 62 degrees south latitude. 



In considering these regions of the Antarctic I must not forget also 

 to mention that the fur seal was in early times up the east coast of 

 South America, here and there, in little rookeries, as far north as Cape 

 St. Koque; but the number was unimportant when brought into con- 

 trast with that belonging to those localities which we have designated. 

 A small clirt-bound rookery to-day exists at Cape Corrientes. This is 

 owned and farmed out by Argentina, and we are informed that in spite 

 of all their care and attention they have neither increased nor have 

 they diminished from their original insignificance. From these rook- 

 eries only 5,000 to 10,000 were and are annually taken. Another small 

 preserve on the Lobos islets, near the mouth of the River Plate, is also 

 protected and leased by the Government of Uruguay, and from 12,000 

 to 15,000 skins are annually taken there. 



When we look at our northern Atlantic waters, we speedily recognize 

 the fact that between North America and Europe, across the Atlantic 

 and into the Arctic, there is not a single island, or islet, or stretch of 

 coast on which the fur seal could successfully struggle for existence; 

 therefore it has never been found there. It appears as if our fur seals 

 had originally passed to Bering Sea from the parent stock of the Pata- 

 gonia region, uj) along the coast of South America, a few tarrying 

 at the dry and heated Galapagos Islands, the rest speeding on to the 

 northward, disturbed by the clear skies and sandy beaches of the Mex- 

 ican Coast, on and up totlie great fish spawning shores of the Aleutian 

 Islands and Bering Sea. There, on the Pribilov group and the blufty 

 Commander Islands, they found that union of cool water, well-adapted 

 H. Doc. 175 2 



