194 
APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
The details of the fisheries for a series of years are shown in the following Table. 
(As to the number of persons employed, it is not possible to give details in all 
cases. 
At Pribyloft Islands, in 1880, there were 372 Aleuts and 18 whites. 
mander Islands there are about 500 persons. 
At Com- 
In the North-west coast fishery 523 
Indian hunters and 100 whites, and in the Cape Horn fishery about 400 whites, of 
whom, perhaps, 300 are Chileans. ) 
Number of Fur Seal Skins from Principal Iisheries: 1871 to 1887. 
[Compiled from official sources by A. H. Clark. 
No returus for spaces blank.] 
Com- 
; North- : 
Pribyloff | mander west : |Falkland| Cape | Lobos Cape of 
Year. Islands. Islands Coast of Japan. Islands. Horn. | Islands. Good 
and Rob- ‘Aynerion | Hope 
jben Reef. | : 
1 CTH eee eee see 63, 000 BB bce eaacee ( faye idee er (ook al Pewee aol teers 
TED a> RBCS seoeeaoe O9N000)] wi2001 ON peeeeeeree Oeil le coeseeees yy fag Mleteesedces tbsoscmSs- 
99, 630 aU eo \lenondscs se Se} \koonss2se- eel Peeper ln abe ae 
991820") 1817 |Sooeseecee on 1,085 || #5o 7, 954 9, 393 
99,500), ; S62ay|aas-eeeeee |! es 10 {ESS 2, 243 8, 629 
99,000 |. 26,960: ii- ane . 52. 173 || aaa 6,618 | 11, 225 
$5,000) aelebBon eee ee aS 1,386/| §& 22, 550 11, 065 
955000)|) eslaeOnmeeen eee eS) 2,366|15 & |} 11,931 13, 086 
99, 968 42,752 18,500 || Ss 4,038 |(& ~J| 6,900 15, 128 
99,950} 48,504 19, 150 52 2, 427 9,275 | 10, 900 7,731 
85,000 | 42,640 |...-2-22-- || ae | 620 6, 610 8, 887 8, 280 
99,800} 46.000) 17,700* | 8 50 8,600 | 15, 067 11, 497 
WS. 000)| | 251000s|-seeeseeee | ~ 11,943 8:1 es 13, 950 7, 020 
99.500] 38,000] 15,641*|......--.. 684. || 4 5 10, 722 3, 924 
) 799° 600:||-=42) 000%)" #15; 0005) Sees ees aaeeeenee 150.4 11, 223 4, 407 
| 98,000] 45,000} 38. 907* 3, 695 G8iipore 15, 949 3, 378 
1 °99;,890'|, 48000), 129) Qin ene apes | ee eremeetere | (& 2 | BE SEA IAS 8 
| | 
* Catch landed at British Columbia vessels. {Mostly taken in Behring’s Sea. See Schedule (A). 
176 The second point upon which information is requested is ‘‘that of the 
destruction of the fur seal, resulting either in its extermination or the dimi- 
nution of its yield in places where it formerly abounded,” &c. 
At the beginning of the present century there were great rookeries of fur seal at 
Falkland Islands, at the South Shetlands, at Masafuera, at South Georgia, and at 
many other places throughout the Antarctic region. These places were visited by 
sealing-vessels, and indiscriminate slaughter of the animals resulted in the exter- 
mination of the species, or in such diminution in their numbers that the fishery 
became unprofitable. 
The details of the Antarctic fishery are given in Section 5, vol. ii, of the quarto 
Report of the United States Fish Commission, pp. 400-467; in Report by H. W. 
Elliott on ‘‘Seal Islands of Alaska,” 6, pp. 117-124 (reprinted in vol. viii, 10th Cen- 
sus Reports); in ‘‘ Monograph of North American Pinnipeds,” by J. A. Allen (Misc. 
Pub., xii, United States Geological Survey); in “‘ Fanning’s Voyages Round the 
World” (New York, 1833); in ‘‘ Narrative of Voyages and Travels in Northern and 
Southern Hemispheres,” by Amasa Delano (Boston, 1817); and in numerous other 
works, towhich reference will be found in the above volumes. 
A few men are still living who participated in the Antarctic seal fisheries years 
ago. Their stories of the former abundance of fur seals I have obtained in personal 
interviews. As to the manner of destruction there is but one thing to say: an indis- 
criminate slaughter of old and young, male and female, in a few years results in the 
breaking up of the largest rookeries, and, as in the case of Masafuera and the Falk- 
land Islands, the injury seems to be a permanent one. As an instance, the South 
Shetlands were first visited in 1819, when fur seals were very abundant; two vessels 
in a short time securing full fares. In 1820 thirty vessels hastened to the islands, 
and in a few weeks obtained upwards of 250,000 skins, while thousands of seals 
were killed and lost. In 1821-22 Weddell * says: ‘‘320,000 skins were taken. : 
The system of extermination was practised, for whenever a seal reached 
the beach, of whatever denomination, he was immediately killed and his skin taken ; 
and by this means, at the end of the second year, the animals became nearly extinct. 
The young, having lost their mothers when only three or four days old, of course 
died, which, at the lowest calculation, exceeded 100,000.” In subsequent years, 
until 1845, these islands were occasionally visited by vessels in search of seal-skins, 
* “ Weddell’s Voyages,” p. 130, quoted in Section Vis vol. ii, quarto Report of United 
States Fish Commission, p. 407. 
