THE FUTURE OF PELAGIC SEALING. 273 



That the more intelligent element among the sealers themselves are awakening to 

 the fact that the seals are rapidly decreasing and that the pelagic sealing industry 

 will soon be a thing of the past if really protective measures be not adopted speedily, 

 is plain to any one who has conversed with them last year. 



I venture to prophesy that the pelagic sealers themselves will next cry for 

 Ijrotection to the seals. Many of them are now willing to submit to a closed season 

 to include the months of August and September — the more since it would scarcely be 

 any sacrifice at all in view of the small number of seals which can be secured in the 

 feeding ground nowadays. In 1896 there were not a dozen schooners on the feeding 

 grounds of the Cornmauder Islands, and these were mostly on the feeding grounds of 

 the Bering Islands seals, because those of Copper Island are nearly exhausted. A 

 glance at plate 110, diagram b, shows how slight this sacrifice would be, especially if 

 we remember that at the Commander Islands there is no close season at all, and that 

 the hunting is allowed there all summer outside of the 30-mile limit. 



THE FUTURE OF PELAGIC SEALING IN JAPANESE WATERS. 



I have already pointed out the rapid and continued decrease of pelagic sealing on 

 the Asiatic side. Anyone looking at the diagram showing the average catch per 

 vessel during 1893-1896 (pi. 110, fig. b) may continue the downward lines and make a 

 fairly accurate guess at the number of skins the schooners are likely to get in the 

 future. There can thus be no doubt that the average number of skins per vessel will 

 continue to decrease, subject to possible occasional fluctuations due to unusually 

 favorable circumstances. 



But that does not necessarily mean that the business will become less and less 

 profitable in the same ratio. There may be two ways to prevent that. In the first 

 place, if the price of the skins were to advance correspondingly as the number of 

 pelagic skins on the market decreases, there might still be profit in pelagic sealing. 

 Unfortunately for the business, the prospect for advancing prices are very slim. 

 As a matter of fact, the prices have gone down at about the same ratio as the supply 

 of pelagic skins. The reason is not far to seek. The value of the fully dressed seal 

 fur is mainly due to the artificial coloring and the labor spent in dressing the skin, 

 it is consequently to a great extent an industrial and artificial product. The same 

 skill and labor spent on other and cheaper furs result in furs very similar and nearly 

 as attractive. The seal fur owes its fashionable position and high value chiefly to the 

 persistent efforts of the Alaska Commercial Company to introduce it and their ability 

 to manipulate the market to the best advantage. 



Should the United States and Russian Governments, moreover, undertake to brand 

 all the female seals, it would undoubtedly depress the price of pelagic skins still 

 further. Ko matter how much or how little the branding might damage the skins, 

 the very fact that three out of every four pelagic skins would be more or less injured 

 would still further prejudice the market against them and reduce their price. 



The other way of preventing the decrease in profits as the number of skins 



decreases would be the reduction of expenses in taking them. I have allready alluded 



to the attempt at doing so in the present chapter under the heading "Three classes of 



pelagic sealers in Japanese waters" (p. 262), as I showed that the Japanese are 



15183— PT 4 18 



