APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN, 467 
other minor points were found to yield more or less seal. In this period of fifty years 
in these localities seal life had recuperated to such an extent that there was taken 
from them in the six years from 1870 to 1876 or 1877 perhaps 40,000 skins. 
Q. After they had been abandoned for fifty years?—A. Yes; to-day they are again 
exhausted. ‘The last year’s search of vessels in that region—-I have the statistics here 
of a vessel from Stonington from the South Shetland Islands, reported in 1888, and 
she procured thirty-nine skins as the total result of search on those islands and South 
Georgia. 
~ One of my own vessels procured sixty-one skins, including eleven pups, as 
426 the total result of her voyage; and, except about Cape Horn, there are, in my 
opinion, no seals remaining. Ido not think that 100 seals could be procured 
from all the localities mentioned by a close search. Any one of those localities I 
have named, under proper protection and restrictions, might have been perpetuated 
as a breeding-place for seals, yielding as great a number per annum as do the islands 
belonging to the United States. 
Now, the trade in those localities is entirely exhausted, and it would be impossible 
in a century to restock those islands, or bring them back to a point where they would 
yield a reasonable return for the investment of capital in hunting skins. ‘That, in 
brief, completes the history of the fur-seal in the South Atlantic Ocean. 
Danger of the Extermination of the Alaska Rookeries. 
We have already mentioned that the present number of seals on St. Paul and St. 
George Islands has materially diminished during the last two or three years. The 
testimony discloses the fact that a large number of British and American vessels, 
manned by expert Indian seal-hunters, have frequented Behring’s Sea and destroyed 
hundreds of thousands of fur-seals by shooting them in the water, and securing as 
many of the carcases for their skins as they were able to take on board, The testi- 
mony of the Government Agents shows that of the number of seals killed in the 
water not more than one in seven, on an average, is secured, for the reason that a 
wounded seal will sink in the sea; so that for every 1,000 sealskins secured in this 
manner there is a diminution of seal life at these rookeries of at least 7,000. Added 
to this is the fact that the shooting of a female seal with young causes the death of 
both. If the shooting is before delivery, that, of course, is the end of both; if after, 
the young seal dies for want of sustenance. 
During the season of 1885 the number of contraband sealskins placed on the mar- 
ket was over 13,000; and in 1886, 25,000; in 1887, 34,000; and in 1888 the number of 
illicit skins secured by British cruizers was less than 25,000, which number would 
have been largely increased had not the season been very stormy and boisterous. 
American citizens respected the law and the published notice of the Secretary of 
the Treasury, and made no attempt to take seals. 
From this it appears that, during the last three years, the number of contraband 
sealskins placedl on the market amounted to over 97,000, and which, according to 
the testimony, destroyed nearly 750,000 fur-seals, causing a loss of revenue amount- 
ing to over 2,000,000 dollars, at the rate of tax and rental paid by the lessee of the 
Seal Islands. - 
Limitation: the Lessee forbidden to kill any Female Seal. 
The following is an extract from the official Report to Congress: 
The lessee is permitted to kill 100,000 fur-seals on St. Panl and St. George Islands, 
and no more, and is prohibited from killing any female seal or any seal less than one 
- year old, and from killing any fur-seal at any time except during the months of June, 
July, September, and October, and from killing such seals by the use of fire-arms or 
other means tending to drive the seals from said islands, and from killing any seal 
in the water adjacent to said islands, or on the beaches, cliffs, or rocks where they 
haul up from the sea to remain. 
Further extract from Report: 
It is clear to your Committee, from the proof submitted, that to prohibit seal- 
killing on the Seal Islands, and permit the killing in Behring’s Sea, would be no 
protection; for it isnot on the islands where the destruction of seal life is threat- 
ened or seals are unlawfully killed, but it is in that part of Behvring’s Sea lying 
between the eastern and western limits of Alaska, as described in the Treaty of 
Cession, through which the seals pass and repass in going to and from their feeding- 
grounds, some 50 miles south-east of the rookeries, and in their annual migrations to 
and from the islands. 
Extract from Report of L. N. Buynitsky, Agent of the Treasury in 1870, to Hon- 
ourable Geo. L. Boutwell, Secretary of the Treasury. It will be observed that this 
Report was made in 1870, before any dispute had arisen with the Canadian sealers: 
When the herd has been driven a certain distance from the shore a halt is made, 
and a sorting of the game as to age, sex, and condition of the fur is efiected. ‘This 
