374 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
prices obtainable for the skins, as many as fifty schooners, some of them 
titted with steam, and amply provided with firearms, have been engaged 
in the capture of female seals. 
339 It is estimated that their catch this season will amount to no 
less than 40,000 skins. This number does not include the many 
animals killed or mutilated, but not retrieved. 
Now, if this indiscriminate slaughter of female seals cannot be 
stopped, or at all events restricted, by some International Agreement 
(as to a close time, for instance), the animal will, before many years are 
over, become extine t, and a lar. ge industry, in which Great Britain is 
deeply interested, will be lost. 
Already there are unmistakable signs that the number of seals annu- 
ally visiting the two breeding islands in the Behring’s Sea is decreas- 
ing, for from Reports lately to hand, we learn that the Superintendent 
on the islands, which are leased from the United States Government 
by the Alaska’ Commercial Company of San Francisco, has this year 
found considerable difficulty in obtaining the usual quantity of desir- 
able male seals, and estimates that the herd has decreased fully one- 
third in the last ten years. 
In submitting these facts to you, we would urge the importance of 
arriving at a speedy settlement of this question before it is too late. 
We are, &e. 
(Signed) C. M. LAMPSON AND Co. 
No. 244. 
Colonial Office to Foreign Office.—( Received November 8.) 
DOWNING STREET, November 8, 1889. 
Str: I am directed by Lord Knutsford to transmit to you, to be laid 
before the Marquis of Salisbury, a copy of adespatch from the Deputy- 
Governor of Canada relating to the question of the Behring’s Sea sei- 
zures, from which it appears that the High Commissioner for Canada is 
to be instructed to place himself in communication with Her Majesty’s 
Government, with the object of expediting a satisfactory settlement of 
the general question. 
Jam, Xe. 
(Signed) JOHN BRAMSTON. 
[Inclosure 1 in No. 244.] 
Sir W. J. Ritchie to Lord Knutsford. 
OTTAWA, October 23, 1889. 
My Lorp: I have the honour to forward herewith a copy of an approved Minute 
of the Privy Council, having reference to the course which the owners of British 
schooners seized in Bbehring’s Sea by the United States cutter ‘‘ Rush” proposed to 
follow in the event of Captain Sheppard’s arriving at Victoria. 
Your Lordship will note the recommendation of the Minister of Marine and 
Fisheries, that the High Commissioner be instrueted to place himself in personal 
communication with Her Majesty’s Government, with the object of expediting a 
satisfactory settlement of the general question of seizures in Behring’s Sea. 
I have, &c. 
(Signed) W.J. RITCHIE, Deputy-Governor. 
