84 PELAGIC SEALING. 



Examination of confirm the fact that a very large proportion of 



pelagic c at c lie s 



1892. the pelagic catches consist of female seals. 1 



Proportion of This large ratio of females taken at sea does 



females taken at ° 



sea prior to 1870. not &{ff eY f rom that observed before the Pribilof 

 Islands were leased. In the official report on 

 the seal question made by a special agent of 

 the United States on November 30, 1869, the 

 following appears: "Nearly all the 5,000 seals 

 annually caught on the British Columbian coast 

 are pregnant females * * *," 2 and Capt. 

 Bryant, in 1870, also states that "formerly in 

 March and April the natives of Puget Sound 

 took large numbers of pregnant females." 3 



2. That pelagic sealing in Bering Sea is not as de- 

 structive to seal life as pelagic sealing in the 

 North Pacific. 



There is an evident attempt on the part of 



the British Commissioners to establish that the 



principal harm to the seal herd resulting from 



pelagic sealing is inflicted during the herd's 



Gronnris for the migration in the Pacific Ocean. This is based, 



.Report 's state- 

 meats, primarily, on the assumption that no gravid 



females are taken in Bering Sea (Sec. 648), and 



that the alleged occasional deaths of "a few 



' C. J. Behlow, post pp. 353-358. 



*Ex. Doc. No. 32, 41st Cong., 2d Sess., p. 39. 



3 Bull. 2, Mus. Comp. Zoology, p. 88. 



