190 THE ASIATIC FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 



mile of the shore, aud, ia spite of the diplomatic remonstrances by Great Britain, Mr. 

 Grebnitski was fully sustained by Mr. Giers, the Eussian minister for foreign affairs, 

 in his letter of August 16, 1889. However, although caught as a raider, the Araunah 

 was in reality a regular pelagic sealer from British Columbia, with Indian hunters 

 and Indian canoes. 



In 1888 the Maggie Mao was also near Copper Island, at least her boats, as 

 testified by T. H. Brown, one of the boat steerers; in fact, so near that "we were shot 

 at from the shore, a number of bullets piercing our boat." (Venning's Eep., 1893, 

 p. 89.) 



PELAGIC SEALING AT COMMANDER ISLANDS. 



The tactics described in the closing paragraphs of the chapter relating to the 

 raiding of the rookeries, of sending the canoes in among the breeding seals off the 

 rookeries to kill them in the water while the schooner remained at sea, were the fore- 

 runner of pelagic sealing around the Commander Islands. It was claimed by the crew 

 of the G. G. White, Captain Hagman, who gave themselves up (in 1890) to the author- 

 ities on Copper Island, that they were blown ashore after having lost their vessel; 

 but the natives evidently thought differently, for they fired upon three of the boats 

 as they attempted to laud, killing one man and wounding two, while seven bullets 

 went through the boats. However, as the schooner was not captured, the meu 

 were sent back to San Francisco in the company's steamer. While it is true that 

 the James Hamilton Lewis (formerly the Ada) was caught right under the South 

 Eookery of Bering Island in 1891 by the Eussian war vessel Aleut, it is certain that 

 many of the 416 skins (90 per cent of which it has been stated were females) 

 confiscated were killed at sea. 



When but few seals were left on Eobben Island and the Kurils to raid, the 

 schooners fitting out in Japan turned their attention to following up the Commander 

 Islands herd on its northward migrations along the outer side of the Kuril chain, 

 adopting the regular methods of pelagic sealing. Owing to the necessity of having 

 heavier and stronger vessels on that coast, because of the much more severe weather 

 and the consequent greater risk, the pelagic sealing developed much slower on the 

 Asiatic side than on the American, and played a comparatively unimportant r61e up 

 to 1892.1 



The latter year saw the total prohibition of sealing in the eastern, or American, 

 part of Bering Sea, according to the modus vivendi between Great Britain and the 

 United States pending the fur-seal arbitration by the Paris tribunal. The sealing 

 fleet was already on their way when they were informed of the closing of Bering Sea, 

 the result being that quite a number of the vessels, rather than return home, made 

 straight for the Commander Islands to try their luck there. N'o less than 32 Canadian 



'The British Bering Sea commissioners, writing in June, 1892, could therefore state as a "fact 

 that pelagic sealing, as understood on the coast of America, is there [Asiatic coast] practically 

 unknown." It is probable, however, that the real beginning was made already in 1891, though on a 

 smaller scale. Capt. Charles Lutjens, of San Francisco, owner of the schooner Kate and Anna, states 

 (Fur Seal Arb., viii, p. 715) that on going into Bering Sea on Jnne 6, 1891, he was warned out, and 

 went directly to the Russian side, where he got 450 seals. The Penelope, Capt. J. W. Todd, of Victoria, 

 was also there that year; also Beatrice, Capt. M. Keefe, who got 500 seals there; Umbrina, Capt. J. 

 Matthews, 30 seals; Maud S., Capt. A. MoKeil; Ocean Belle, Capt. W. O'Leary; Dennis, Capt. E. P. 

 Miner; City of San Die'jo, Theresa, Viva, Geneva, and probably several others. 



