264 ALASKA. 



perish or drag out for years a most precarious and wretcbed 

 existence."* 



This gives a very fair idea of the manner in which the busi- 

 ness was conducted in the South Pacific. How long would our 

 sealing interests in Bering Sea withstand the attacks of such a 

 fleet of sixty vessels, carrying from twenty to thirty men each? 

 Not over two years. The fact that these great southern rook- 

 eries withstood and paid for attacks of this extensive character 

 during a period of over twenty years speaks eloquently of the 

 millions upon millions that must have existed in the waters now 

 almost deserted by them. 



* Kobert Hamilton, Amphibious Mammalia, Edinburgh, 1839. 



