226 THE ASIATIC PUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 



62.500. During the closing of Bering Sea, pending the deliberations of the Paris 

 Arbitration Tribunal in 1892 and 1893, the number fell again, only to rise almost to 

 the old figure upon the reopening of the eastern portion of Bering Sea in 1894. At 

 the same time the killing on the Pribilof Islands up to 1890 averaged over 100,000, or 

 more than twice as many as were secured at sea. ,The condition of the rookeries in 

 the early days being chiefly measured by the yield of bachelor skins, and the pelagic 

 sealing, with its consequent decrease of females on the feeding grounds, being gradual, 

 the full significance of the facts were at first not understood. 



On the Asiatic side the state of affairs is entirely different. There pelagic sealers 

 did not begin to prey upon the Commander Islands herd until 1891, and in that year 

 even to a very insignificant extent. In 1892, however, the entire pelagic fleet sailing 

 in Bering Sea came across to the Eussian Islands, and on the feedings grounds off 

 Copper Island alone — the capacity of which at its best was hardly one-fourth that of 

 the Pribilof Islands — the sealers took more seals, chiefly females, than they had ever 

 taken around the Pribilofs in any one season, or about 25,000 seals. In 1893 they 

 came again, hunted the Asiatic seals both in their winter quarters and off the islands, 

 securing over 72,000 Commander Islands seals, and iu 1894 over 90,000, mostly females, 

 figures nearly twice as large as the largest catches on the American coast off a seal 

 herd more than twice as large. The catches on the Commander Islands at the same 

 time averaged only about 30,000 bachelors. 



In other words the pelagic sealing on the Asiatic side was fully four times as 

 disastrous in proportion to the stocTc of seals on the islands compared with the 

 destruction visited on the American seals. 



Up to 1891 no one had noted a diminution of the breeding seals on the 

 Commander Islands, but in view of the above figures no one will wonder that when I 

 visited Bering and Copper islands in 1895 the number of female seals had seriously 

 dwindled to a mere fraction of their original numbers. Here was consequently no 

 mistaking either the facts of the decline or the cause of it. 



PROTECTIVE MEASURES. 



It will be noticed that while the United States and England tried to come to an 

 arrangement for the protection of the American fur seals, the enormous blow was 

 inflicted upon the Eussian seal herd. The Eussian authorities in St. Petersburg were 

 quick to act, but owing to lack of correct information the regulations agreed to 

 with England for the protection of the Asiatic herd (Eusso English Provisional 

 Arrangement of 1893) failed in their purpose even more so than those promulgated by 

 the Paris tribunal. 



The chief differences in the regulations for the protection of fur seals on the two 

 sides of the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean are as follows : 



On the American side the prohibited zone extends 60 miles around the islands; 

 on the Asiatic side the zone is only 30 miles wide. On the American side sealing is 

 prohibited from May 1 to July 31; on the Asiatic side there is no restriction as to 

 season whatever. 



While it is true that the time limit as fixed on the American side has not 

 afforded the protection that was expected, yet an examination of the statistics given 

 in my report on the Japanese sealing industry (270) will show conclusively that a 

 good many thousand seals would have been saved to the Asiatic seal herd had sealing 

 been prohibited after May 1. On the Asiatic side the main injury is inflicted to the 



