MAS-A-FUERO AND JUAN FERNANDEZ. 309 



The captain reports that he was compelled to suspend his sealing operations, owing to a change 

 in the weather, which became quite stormy, and, as it was getting late in the season, heproceeded on 

 his voyage to Victoria, reaching there on May 21, 1895. 



Captuiu GilViert reported that all the seals were secured at sea, far distant from any of the seal- 

 ing preserves, and were shot in the same manner as are those taken in the North Pacific Ocean hy the 

 Victoria sealing fleet. He met with no iuterlereuce. 



In reply to the inquiries made, it was ascertained that no recortl existed of the landing, in the 

 past, of any seal skins at a British Columbia port which did not form part of the catch of the sealers 

 operating in the North Pacific Ocean, either on the American or Asiatic sides thereof. 



The skins are reported to have been in good condition, and to be of the same kind as those 

 usually sold by Messrs. Lam^json & Co., London, and are classed and known with the Lobos Island 

 seal skins, from the mouth of the River Platte, and bring about the same prices as those taken in the 

 North Pacific Ocean. 



The character of the skins is represented as being very similar to that of those usually secured 

 by the British Columbian fleet. 



MAS-A-FUERO. 



The island of Mas-a-Fuero, situated off the coast of Chile, in latitude 34° south 

 (about 400 miles west of Valparaiso), when first discovered, in 1563, swarmed with 

 fur seals. The island seems to have been first visited for fur seals by the ship UHza, 

 Oapt. William E. Stewart, of New York, in 1792. This vessel secured a cargo of 

 38,000 skins, which were taken to Canton and sold for $10,000. In 1798 Capt. Edward 

 Fanning, of the ship Betsey, from New York, took 100,000 seal skins to the Canton 

 market, nearly all of which were obtained at Mas-a-Fuero, He estimated at the time 

 of his leaving Mas-a-Faero there were still left on the island between 500,000 and 

 700,000 seals.' 



Capt. A. Delauo, writing of the same subject, says: 



When the Americans came to Mas-a-Fuero, about the year 1797, and began to make a business 

 of killing seals, there is no doubt but that there were 2,000,000 or 3,000,000 of them on the island. I 

 have made au estimate of more than 3,000,000 that have been carried to Canton from thence in the 

 space of seven years. I have carried more than 100,000 myself, and have been at the place when 

 there were the people of fourteen ships or vessels on the island at one time killing seals. ^ 



It is therefore scarcely a matter of surprise that in 1807, according to Captain 

 Morrell,^ "The business was scarcely wortli following. * * * in 1824 the island, 

 like its neighbor, Juan Fernandez, was almost entirely abandoned by these animals." 

 In other words, the seals had become so nearly exterminated that there were not 

 enough left to render the pursuit of them profitable. In later years the island has 

 been visited at intervals by fur-seal hunters and small catches obtained. As late as 

 1891 Capt. Frank M. Gaffuey states (affidavit) that on visiting the island for fur seals 

 he saw 300 or 400, and took 19, showing that a few are still to be found at Mas-^-Fuero. 



JUAN FERNANDEZ. 



The island of Juan Fernandez, situated a few miles to the eastward of Mas-a-Fuero, 

 was formerly the home of immense numbers of fur seals. Dampier, who visited this 

 island in 1683, says : 



Seals swarm as thick about this Island of John Ferando as if they had no other place in the World 

 to live in; for there is not a Bay or Rock that one can get ashore on that is not full of them. * ' * 

 These at John Ferando's have fine, thick, short Furr; the like I have not taken notice of anywhere 



' Voyages, etc., pp. 117, 118. ^Narr. Voy. and frav., 1817, p. 306. Voyages, etc., p. 130. 



