FUE-SEAL FISHEEIES OF ALASKA. IH 



iug voyages, from tlie fact that those places wbicb were the resort of 

 seals bad beeu abaudoned by them." (Fanniiig's Voyages, p. 487.) 



At Antipodes Islaud, off the coast of New South Wales, 400,000 skins 

 were obtained in the years 18 14 and 1815. 



Referring to these facts, Professor BUiott of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, in bis able report on the Seal Islands, published by the Interior 

 Department in 1884, says : 



This gives a very fair idea of the manner in which the busiuess was conducted in 

 the South Pacific. How long would our sealing interests in Bering Sea withstand 

 the attacks of sixty vessels carrying from twenty to thirty men each ? Not over two 

 seasons. The fact that these great southern rookeries withstood and paid for attacks 

 of this extensive character during a period of more than twenty years, speaks elo- 

 quently of the millions upon millions that must have existed in the waters now 

 almost deserted by them. 



Mr. K. H. Chapel, of New London, Conn., whose vessels had visited 

 all the rookeries of tbe South Pacific, in his written statement before 

 the Committee on Commerce of the House of Representatives, said: 



As showing the ijrogress of this trade in furseal skins and the abuses of its prose- 

 cution, r«;sultiug in almost total annihilation of the animals in some localities, it is 

 stated on good authority that, from about 1770 to 1800, Kergueleu's Land, in the Indian 

 Ocean, yielded to the English traders over 1,000,000 skins ; but open comijetition swept 

 off the herds that resorted there, and since the latter year hardly 100 per annum could 

 be obtained on all its long coast. Afterwards, Messafaero Island, near Juan Fernan- 

 dez, was visited, and 50,000 a year were obtained ; but as every one that desired was 

 free to go and kill, the us ual result followed — the seals were exterminated at that 

 island, and also at the Gallipagos group, near by. 



Falkland and Shetland Islands, and South American coasts, near Cape Horn, cams 

 next in order; here the seal were very abundant. It is stated that at the Shetlands 

 alone 100,000 per annum might mave beeu obtained and the rookeries preserved, if 

 taken under proper restrictions ; but in the eagerness of men they killed old and 

 young, male and female ; little pups a few days old, deprived of their mothers, died 

 by thousands on the beaches, carcasses and bones strewed the shores, and ihis pro- 

 ductive fishery was wholly destroyed. It is estimated that in the years IS21 and 

 1822 no less than 320,000 of these animals were killed at the Shetlands alone. An 

 American captain, describing in after years his success there, says: " We went the 

 first year with one vessel and got 1,200 skins ; the second year with two vessels, and 

 obtained 30,000 ; the third year with six vessels, getting only 1,700— all there was 

 left." 



A small rookery is still preserved at the Lobos Islands, off the river La Plata ; this 

 being carefully guarded under strict regulations by the Government of Buenos Ayres, 

 and rented to proper parties, yields about 5,000 skins per annum. As late as the year 

 1854, a small island, hardly a mile across, was discovered by Americans in the Japan 

 Sea, where about 50,000 seals resorted annually. Traders visited it, aud in three 

 years the club and knife had cleaned them all off. Not 100 a season can now tie found 

 there. 



In the Annual Report of Secretary McCulloch for 18G8, he says : 



The pi-otection of the fur-bearing animals is a matter of importance hardly to be 

 overrated. In consequence of information received last spring, the captain of the 

 JVayanda was directed to visit, as early in the season as practicable, the islands in 

 Bering Sea where the fur seal chiefly abounds. On his arrival at St. Paul's and St. 

 George's Islands, he found there several large parties engaged in hunting the animals 

 indiscriminately, aud in traffic with the natives in ardent spirits aud other forbidden 

 articles. Quarrels had arisen and the natives complained that the reckless and un- 

 skillful movements of the new hunters had already driven the animals from somo of 

 their usual haunts. The captaiu of the cutter instituted such measures as he felt au- 

 thorized to institute for the maintenance of the peace and tho protection of the ani- 

 mals from indiscriminate slaughter. 



The preservation of these animals by the observance of strict regulations in hunt- 

 ing them, is not only a matter of the highest importance in an economical view, but 

 a matter of life or death to the natives. Hitherto, seals have been hunted under the 

 supervision of the Russian company, and exclusively by the natives, who are trained 

 from children to that occupation, and derive from it their clothing and subsistence. 

 They have been governed by exact and stringent rules as to the time of hunting, and 

 the number and kind of seals to be taken. » » * The United States can not, of 

 course, administer such a trade as a Government monopoly, and the only alternative 



