604 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
May I ask your Lordship also to note the fact that when United 
States seal-hunters some years ago (in 1860-61, I think) undertook to 
compete in our Newfoundland seal fishery no objection whatever was 
raised by us to their doing so, or even to their outfitting in our ports, 
subject to like duties upon their supplies and outfits which the local 
fisherman had to pay? It was our refusal to permit them to bring in 
their own supplies free of duty, whilst they outfitted in other respects 
from our ports, which induced them in a fit of mere dudgeon to abandon 
the fishery. 
From the inclosed extract which I take from the “Toronto Empire” 
of the 28th July your Lordship will please to observe that I have taken 
some pains to tabulate the recorded annual catch of our North Atlantic 
seals from 1805 to 1885 inclusive. This is entirely distinet from the 
catch (of which no record is kept) mainly taken from the shore and 
within the bays and harbours of the island, which is in some years 
quite large, and would add very considerably to the number. And yet, 
with all this annual destruction, there is to-day no perceptible diminu- 
tion of the number of seals. If these animals were not thus destroyed, 
and their produce utilized, the cod fishery, which to-day constitutes the 
main industry of the Colony, together with our Atlantic salmon and 
herring fisheries, would almost immediately be destroyed; for it is 
entirely upon these fish they prey, and the quantity annually consumed 
by them is almost incalculable. 
I have, &e. 
(Signed) Rost. WINTON. 
. 
{Inclosure in No. 9.] 
Extract from the “ Toronto Empire” of July 28, 1890. 
THE BEHRING’S SEA SEAL FISHERY. 
32, HALTON STREET, July 24, 1890. 
To the Editor of the “ Empire.” 
Sir: Ihave read with much interest that portion of the ofticial correspondence 
recently laid before the House of Commons on the above controversy between the 
British and the United States Governments, as published in your issue of ‘‘ The 
Empire” this morning, and have been much struck by the contrast exhibited between 
the vigorous, logical, and perspicuous representations of Lord Salisbury and 
13 the weak and disingenuous assumptions and propositions of the Minister of 
the United States. 
I am glad to observe Lord Salisbury’s recognition of the fact that ‘it requires 
something more than a mere declaration” upon the part of a Minister of the United 
States to ‘bring one to a substantial conclusion as to facts involved in the discussion 
of questiones vexrate between the two Governments. It is quite possible (as his Lord- 
ship intimates) that in some respects ‘‘Mr. Blaine has been misinformed,” as it is 
equally clear that in others he is neither informed nor misinformed. 
In reply to Mr. Blaine’s statement respecting the ‘irregular slaughter of seals in 
the open waters of Behring’s Sea,” and the consequent possible total destruction of 
the tishery in a few years, ‘Lord Salisbury deems it unnecessary to deal with that 
phase of the question, as it is proposed to submit all the conditions of pelagic seal- 
ing to the investigation of a Committee to be appointed by the two Governments. 
In the meantime, his Lordship is of opinion that if all such sealing was stopped, the 
creature would multiply at even a more extraordinary rate than at present, an opinion 
which every practical seal-hunter will readily indorse. 
As compared with the North Atlantic seal fishery, the Behring’s Sea fishery is 
quite a modern and recent industry. Before Behring discovered either the sea or the 
straits to which his name has been given the North Atlantic fishery was an important 
industry. 
Both fisheries have some features in common, and the habits and characteristics 
of the animals in both waters are not very dissimilar, especially as regards condi- 
tions of propagation, gestation, &c. 
