COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 159 



is nothing- in common between the two modes of taking 



seals. The hnntiiig of seals at large on the sea-surface has -British com- 



never prevailed in the Southern Hemisphere; and though, missioners' Ke- 



hecause of the necessity of reaching the insular resorts of^""'^*'"*" • 



the seals there by sea, we hear of a "sealing fleet," the 



method of taking seals practised has been to land upon the 



sliores wliere the breeding places of the seals are found, 



and there to slaughter the animals with clubs. 



'I' HE METHODS PRACTISED ON THE PRIBYLOFF ISLANDS 

 ARE SIMILAR TO THOSE PRACTISED IN THE SOUTHERN 

 HEMISPHERE. 



On the other hand, the actual mode of killing the I^orth 

 Pacitic seals on tlieir breeding-islands, and when congre- 

 gated there for purposes connected with leprodnction, is 

 analogous to, and nuiy be considered as but a modified form 

 of the practices employed in tiie Southern Hemisphere; 

 from which, though some of the more wasteful, and there- 

 fore the more objectionable, features have been eliminated, 

 it has been directly derived. In fjict, it is a matter of h. r., soth 

 record that Captain Morgan, one of the two prime movers Kepor'tssaa.'^p.^sa 

 in the matter of arranging for the lease of the Pribyloff 

 Islands to a Com])any, and who was a party to the enor- 

 mous slaughter of 18U8, had gained his exi)eiience in the 

 slaughter of fur-seals in the Southern Hemisphere; and 

 that Mr. 0. A. Williams, who, after the organization ofg^^^jj"**^^^^®^"^; 

 the C(mipany leasing the islands became one of its principal 

 shareholders and managers, had already long been iden- 

 tified Avith the indiscriminate slaughter of fur-seals in the 

 Southern Hemisphere. 



Mr. Williams himself acknowledged the similainty exist- 

 ing between the methods first practised on the islands 

 183 and those employed in the Southern Hemisphere, 

 and, according to Mr. Hutchinson, who was also a 

 party to the enormous slaughter of 1868: Elliotts Cen- 



^ '' *' 8US Report, p. 88. 



Morgan's men killed old seals, cows, or anything they came across. ^- ^-y *'^^^ 



The idea A.-as to get all they could. Replrt No el^; 



p. 133. 

 PELAGIC SEALING IS A NEW INDUSTRY OF LOCAL ORIGIN. 



Respecting the origin of pelagic sealing and its total 

 diversity from any mode of sealing practised in the South- 

 ern Hemisphere, the British Commissioners have accumu- 

 lated many facts. They Avrite: 



It may liere Ije particularly noted that the industry [pelagic seal- Britisli Com- 

 ing] thus develojied iu consequence of peculiar local conditions, lia<l^ ^''^j ^?,3" '^ 65 ^*'' 

 never elsewhere appeared as ii factor of commercial importance, and ^° ' 

 tbat in so far as we have been able to discover by inquiries specially 

 directed to this point, no vessels carrying hunters for the purpose of 

 taking seals at large on the sea-surface had ever before fre(|uented any 

 seas any^A here. The vessels sailing Irom New England and from some 

 British ports, Avhich formerly in considerable numbers made sealing 

 voyages to the Southern Hemisphere (])ara. 834 et seq.), slaughtered 

 the seals there only on shore and at the breeding-places, and this 

 without any lespect for the rights of territorial dominion or projierty 

 over the islands they fre(|ueutfd. The '•' sealing fleet" employed in 

 the Soulhci'u lleniisiili<'re luis, tliercfoie, at no time been of the s;imo 

 cbaractev with that engaged iu x'clagio sealing iu the North Pacitic. 



