656 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN, 
seals in pup are captured and killed before their final departure for the breeding- 
grounds in Behring’s Sea. ae *) 
Though the proposition for a joint inquiry into the condition of the Seal Islands 
was not entertained by the United States, the statistics and reports from the vessels 
which proceeded from British Columbia are such as to lead the Minister of Marine 
and Fisheries to doubt the accuracy of ex parte reports regarding the diminution of 
seal life during the season of 1890, and to which Messrs. Sir C. Lampson and Co. 
draw special attention. 
The total catch by Canadian sealers fitted out in British Columbia in 1889 amounted 
to 27,960. The catch so far reported by these vessels in 1890 amounts to 39,547. The 
eatch of vessels and sold in British Columbia was no less than 43,315 skins. The 
catch from the Siberian coast is reported to be large. Judging from recent years 
the catch will be, at Commander Islands, 45,000; Lobos Islands, 15,000; islands near 
Cape Horn and South Polar Sea, 10,000; Seal Islands, Okhotsk Sea, 4,000; Japan, 
7,000; Cape of Good Hope, 5,000. 
These statistics, while meeting the fears of all interested in the preservation of 
seal life, are undoubtedly alarming to the lessees of the Pribylov group, who, relying 
upon securing a monopoly of the fur-seal industry of Behring’s Sea, were induced to 
make a contract with the United States Government, whereby they agreed to pay 
the enormous and unprecedented royalty of 10 dol. 25 c. on every seal taken by them, 
upon which their predecessors and unsuccessful tenderers for the present lease gave 
only 2 dol. 624. a-skin. It is consequently quite likely that these lessees cannot 
afford with such a royalty to catch their full quota of 60,000 this year, and so a reduc- 
tion of the number actually put upon the market tends to increase the price of those 
skins sold. It may not be out of place in this connection to make further reference 
to the energetic manner in which those interested in the monopoly endeavour to excite 
alarm regarding the probable extinction of fur-seals. 
Mr. D. O. Mills, of New York, is supposed to be the most largely interested of the 
present lessees of the Seal Islands in Behring’s Sea. He does not pretend to expert 
knowledge nor to have visited the seal rookeries. An article written by him in the 
“‘ North American Review” for September 1890 isremarkable for the following extraor- 
dinary statements connected with seal life, and unsupported by any other authority 
than his signature: 
“There is the best evidence that the poachers confine themselves almost exclu- 
sively to this commercially precious female portion of the herd, . . . for the 
male seal is strong and alert, and no hunter can get within shooting distance of him, 
as he can generally escape from the fastest boat pursuing them. . . . In two 
or three years most of the females would be destroyed, with their young, and in a 
comparatively short time the entire family would be extinguished. . . . They 
live only upon fish, and must therefore go to the water for their food. The large 
fishing banks on which the Pribylov seals must depeud for subsistence are from 30 
to 60 miles distant from the islands, and if the females are killed by the hunter there 
while feeding, the pup left on the island, which does not become able to take care of 
itself until after September, loses its protector and dies. . . . Fire-arms are 
freely used by the poachers, however. Indeed, that is their chief instrument of 
slaughter, and the ettect of attacking the herds in the water with flotillas of boats, 
while the air is filled with the sharp reports of guns, is injurious in the extreme.” 
These statements are, in the main, contradicted by the Reports of the United 
States officials, to which the Minister of Marine and Fisheries refers in his Memoran- 
dum hereinbefore mentioned. 
The Minister, so soon as the communication of Messrs. Sir C. Lampson and Co. was 
referred to him, at once caused thorough and careful investigation through the Col- 
lector of Customs at the port of Victoria, British Columbia, to be made into the 
experience of the British Columbian sealers who have hunted in Behring’s Sea dur- 
ing the season of 1890. The result of this investigation establishes— 
That, owing to stormy and boisterous weather in Behring’s Sea, the prevalence of 
much fog, and particularly to a change by the seals of their usual haunts, as here- 
eee mentioned, the early sealers of this season returned with ashorter catch than 
usual. 
Volcanic disturbances on Ounalaska and neighboring islands are said to have 
occurred this season. 
68 The vessels which remained in the sea, after finding the main body of the 
seals on their new grounds, made the best catches, and all the masters of the 
Canadian sealers testify to the extraordinary number of seals still frequenting 
this sea. 
More seals were found to the north and eastward of the Islands of St. Paul and St. 
George, distant therefrom between 40 and 60 miles, than formerly. Heretofore they 
had been more plentiful to the westward of these islands, and distant therefrom 
about 40 miles. 
