108 HABITS OF THE FUR-SEALS. 



Such averages lected in considering 1 tins question that the seal- 



of no value. 



ing captains have each year become more and 

 more familiar with the migration route of the 

 seals in the North Pacific and their feeding 

 grounds in Bering Sea, which naturally tends to 

 increase annually the catches in these localities ; 

 and it is, therefore, only by the comparison of 

 the catches taken in the older hunting areas, with 

 which pelagic sealers have been familiar for 

 twelve or fifteen years, that any evidence of value 

 can be obtained. 

 Average per For this purpose a table has been prepared 



boat iu "spring L xx 



catch," 1886-1891. from the Commissioners' tables, giving the aver- 

 age per boat for the " spring catch," which is 

 obtained in and about the alleged "winter 

 habitat" of the fur-seal. As there is only one 

 hunter to a boat, the average per man is of no 

 value. This table shows an average of 118 

 seals per boat in 1886, and a constant decrease 

 each following year until in 1891 it was but 15 J. 1 

 The United States deny, therefore, in view of 

 evidence already presented in their Case 2 and the 

 facts above stated, that the seals have not de- 

 creased at sea in a like ratio to that observed on 

 the Islands. 



1 Table of average catch per vessel and per boat, post p. 411. 

 4 Case of the United States, p. 169. 



