FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. Ill 



when there were the people of fourteen ships or vessels on the island at one time kill- 

 ing seals." 



South Shetlands. — In 1821-'23 the South Shetland Islands, a group nearly south from 

 Cape Horn, became known to the seal hunters, and in two years over 320,000 seals 

 were killed and their skins shipped from these islands. 



South Georgia. — Later still, seal were found on the island of South Georgia, South 

 Atlantic Ocean, and from this locality was obtained over 1,000,000 of fur seal, leaving 

 the beaches bare of seal life. 



Cape Horn. — From the coasts of South America and about Cape Horn many thou- 

 sands of fur seal have been taken, and of the life once so prolific there nothing is now 

 left save such remnants of former herds as shelter on rocks and islets almost inaccessible 

 to the most daring hunter. 



This record shows the nearly complete destruction of these valuable animals in 

 southern seas. Properly protected, Kerguelen Land, Massafuero, the Shetlands, and 

 South Georgia might have been hives of industry, producing vast wealth, training- 

 schools for hardy seamen, and furnishing employment for tens of thousands in tlie 

 world's markets where skins are dressed, prepared, and distributed. But the locali- 

 ties weie no man's land, and no man cared for them or their products save as through 

 destruction they could be transmitted into a passing profit. 



The skinsfrora the localities mentioned were marketed mainly in China, as exchange 

 for silks, teas, etc. ; a portion went to Europe and in France and England were manu- 

 factured into caps, gloves, and other small articles, being simply unhaired and dressed. 

 Their commercial value in China was about $5 per skin for first class, and some- 

 thing less in Europe. But Delano, chapter 11, page 197, says: "Having agreed for 

 a freight. Captain Stuart ordered his ship to Canton ; he sold his cargo of seals, 38,000, 

 for only $16,000, so reduced was the price for this article." There was no regular 

 market established for them, and, under the conditions of their taking, there could 

 be none ; for at one time there would be a vast oversupply, while at another skins 

 would be unattainable, and always the assurance that however plentiful mio-ht be 

 the supply for a season the end was not distant, for utter destruction was the rule of 

 capture and no reproduction was possible. Capital could not undertake to develop 

 such a trade, for the end was in sight from the beginning. 



In 1872, fifty years after the slaughter at the Shetland Islands, the localities before 

 mentioned were all revisited by another generation of hunters, and in the sixteen 

 years that have elapsed they have searched every beach and gleaned from every 

 rock known to their predecessors, and found a few secluded and inhospitable places 

 before unknown, and the net result of all their toil and daring for the years scarcely 

 amounts to 45,000 skins; and now not even a remnant remains save on the rocks oif 

 the pitch of Cape Horn. The last vessel at South Shetlands this year of 1888, after 

 hunting all the group, found only 35 skins, and the last at Kerguelen Land, only 61 

 including pups. So, in wretched waste and wanton destruction, has gone out forever, 

 from the southern seas a race of animals useful to man, and a possible industry con- 

 nected with them. And it is plain that without the aid of law, to guide and control, 

 no other result could have been expected or attained. 



The seal life of to-day available for commercial purposes is centered in three lo- 

 calities : 



(1) The Lobos Islands, situated in the mouth of the river La Plata, owned and con- 

 trolled by the Uruguay Republic, and by that government leased to private parties for 

 the sum of|6,000 per annum and some stipulated charges. The annual product in 

 skins is about 12,000. The skins are of rather inferior quality. Insufficient restric- 

 tions are placed upon the lessees in regard to the number of skins permitted to be 

 taken annually, consequently there is some waste of life; nevertheless, the measure 

 of protection allowed has insured the preservation of the "rookery," and will continue 

 so to do. 



(2) Komandorski Couplet, which consists of the islands of Copper and Bering 

 near the coast of Kamchatka, in that portion of Bering Sea pertainin"- to Russia! 

 These islands yield about 40,000 skins per annum, of good quality, and "are o-uarded 

 by carefully restrictive rules as to the killing of seal, analogous to the statutes of the 

 United States relative to the same subject. The right to take seals upon them is leased 

 by the Russian Government to an association of American citizens, who also hold the 

 lease of the islands belonging to the. United States, and are thus enabled to control 

 and direct the business in fur-seal skins for the common advantage and benefit of all 

 parties in interest. These islands can hardly be said to have been "worked" at all 

 for salted seal skins prior to the cession of Alaska by Russia to the United States 

 and the United States Government now profits by the industrv to the extent of the 

 duty of 20 per cent, collected on the "dressed skins" returned to this country from 

 the London market. From 1873 to 1887, Inclusive, this return has been 121,275 skins 



(3.) The Pribylov group consists of the islands of St. Paul and St. George, and is a 

 Governmeiit reservation in that part of Bering Sea ceded to the United States by 



