542 TESTIMONY. 



about 6'"> per skin for first class, and sonietliiug less in Europe. But 

 Delano, ('liapter 11, page 197, says: "Having agreed for a fi^eight. 

 Captain Stuart ordered his sMp to Canton; he sold his cargo of seals, 

 38,000, for only $16,000, so reduced was the price of this article." There 

 was no regular market established for them, and, under the condi- 

 tions of their taking, there could be none; for at one time there would 

 be a vast oversupply, while at another skins would be unattainable, 

 and always the assurance that however plentiful might be the supply 

 for a season the end was not distant, for utter destruction was the rule 

 of capture, and no reproduction was possible. Capital could not under- 

 take to develop such a trade, for the end was in sight from the begin- 

 ning. 



In 1872, fifty years after the slaughter at the Shetland Islands, the 

 localities before mentioned were all revisited by 

 o^iras^^^'* ^° ^^^^'^ ^'^ another generation of hunters, and in the sixteen years 

 ''^° ' that have elapsed they have searched every beach and 



gleaned from every rock known to their predecessors, and found a few 

 secluded and inhospitable places before unknown, and the net result 

 of all their toil and daring for the years scarcely amounts to 45,000 

 skins, and now not even a remnant remains save on the rocks oft' the 

 l)itch of Cape Horn. The last vessel at South Shetlands this year of 

 1888, after hunting all the group, found only 35 skins, and the last 

 at Kerguelan Land oidy 61,"including pups. So in wretched waste 

 and wanton destruction has gone out forever from the 

 Seals exterminated. gQ^^tj^grn scas a racc of auiuials useful to man, and a 

 possible industry connected with them, and it is plain that without the 

 aid of law to guide and control no other result could have been ex- 

 pected or attained. 

 The seal life of to-day available for commercial purposes is centered 

 in three localities : 

 suppTy lTo^'^'is (1) The Lobos Islands, situated in the mouth of the 

 lan'^s" river La Plata, owned and controlled by the Uruguay 



Republic and by that Government leased to private parties for the sum 

 of $0,000 per annum and some stipulated charges. The annual prod- 

 uct in skins is about 12,000. 



The skins are of rather inferior quality. Insufiticient restrictions are 

 placed upon the lessees in regard to the number of skins permitted to 

 be taken annually, consequently there is some waste of life; neverthe- 

 less, the measure of protection allowed lias insured the preservation of 

 the " rookery," and will continue so to do. 



(2) Komnmndorski Couplet, which consists of the islands of Copper 

 and Bering, near the coast of Kamchatka, in that por- 

 landT™^"'^*^'^ ^^ *^^^^ ^^ Bering Sea pertaining to Russia. These islands 

 yield about 40,000 skins x^er annum of good quality, and 

 are guarded by carefully restrictive rules as to the killing of seal, an- 

 alogous to tlie statutes of the United States relative to the same sub- 

 ject. 



The right to take seals upon them is leased by the Russian Govern- 

 ment to an association of American citizens, who 

 G^vemmenTt^Tia^^ also hoUl the Icase of the islands belonging to the 

 ka Commercial Com- United Statcs, and are thus enabled to control and 

 ^*°^' direct the business in fur-seal skins for the common 



advantage and benefit of all parties in interest. These islands can 

 hardly be said to have been "worked" at all for salted seal skins 

 prior to the cession of Alaska by Russia to the United States, and the 

 United States Government now profits by the industry to the extent 



