Washington and Vancouver Island (Baden-Powell and Daw- 

 son 1893:151; Wright 1961:425). 



Elliott (1889:141) wrote that gill nets were used in pelagic 

 sealing, though we believe that this use was unimportant. 

 "The pelagic sealer employs three agencies with which to se- 

 cure his quarry, viz: He sends out Indians with canoes from his 

 vessel, armed with spears; he uses shotguns and buckshot, 

 rifles and balls, and last, but most deadly and destructive of 

 all, he can spread the 'gill-net' in favorable weather." 



In the late 1870's, two innovations converted a primitive ac- 

 tivity into a business. These were: 1) mother ships, or 

 schooners capable of transporting the canoes and the hunters 

 many miles offshore and into the Bering Sea, and 2) firearms. 

 "The first pelagic sealing in Bering Sea was probably that done 

 in 1880, when nearly 500 seals were taken by Captain Kath- 

 gard" (Townsend 1899:224). 



The mean annual take first increased and then declined, as 

 follows (Riley 1961:5-6): 



1868-1870 



5,828 



1871-1880 



7,193 



1881-1890 



24,874 



1891-1900 



42,130 



1901-1910 



20,986 



1911 (last year) 



12,671 



The maximum pelagic take for a single year was 61,838 seals 

 in 1894. From 1890 to 191 1 the pelagic take exceeded, or nearly 

 exceeded, the land take in every year. 



The pelagic take at the expense of the Pribilof herd was in 

 fact much higher than indicated by the foregoing figures, 

 which represent seals taken in Alaskan waters only. For exam- 

 ple, the data provided by Fraser (191 1:32) for the pelagic take 

 from the "British Columbia coast and Bering Sea" show that 

 346,322 skins were received during the peak years 1893-95, as 

 against 148,941 shown by Riley. The reported data for the last 

 2 yr of commercial pelagic sealing, 1910 and 1911, are espe- 

 cially low. They are shown by Riley as 795 and 139 seals, re- 

 spectively. For 1910 and 1911 we have adopted figures pro- 

 vided by J. L. Stoves, of Martin-Rice, Ltd. (in letter of 7 May 

 1963). In the P. R. Poland Collection, London, Stoves exam- 

 ined the original C. M. Lampson and Company catalogues of 

 public sales. He found: 



"Auction 16th December, 1910. 



13,584 salted furseal, Alaska. 



12,111 salted furseal. N.W. Coast (pelagic) 

 Auction 15th December 1911. 



12,453 salted furseal. Alaska. 



12,671 salted furseal. N.W. Coast (pelagic)." 



The Poland family has figured conspicuously in the fur seal 

 trade. Ernest and his brother, Henry, were active around the 

 turn of the century (Poland 1892). Rex, son of Ernest, is still 

 writing (Poland 1964). P. R. Poland, son of Rex, is custodian 

 of the P. R. Poland Collection of fur trade records (Ivy M. 

 Sharp, in letter of 1 October 1964). 



As early as 1881, the Government declared that the fisheries 

 of the Bering Sea from the Alaskan coast westward to the date- 

 line were exclusively the property of the United States. In 

 1886, the Government acted upon its theory by seizing three 

 Canadian vessels and one U.S. vessel engaged in pelagic seal- 



ing in the Bering Sea (U.S. Congress, House 1889:164, 234; 

 Poland 1892:192; Behring Sea Commission 1893:284; Toma- 

 sevich 1943:81). We will discuss later the international uproar 

 which followed. 



With the first seizures, and later ones representing at least 

 12,000 pelagic skins through 1889, it became known to science 

 that the catch in the Bering Sea was two-thirds or three-fourths 

 female, and that females taken as far as 150 mi (250 km) from 

 the Pribilofs were lactating (U.S. Congress, Senate 1895:115). 



Research During the First Lease, 1870-89 



By 1872 the Government had recognized the need for infor- 

 mation on the fur seal herd, particularly for information on its 

 size. Henry Wood Elliott, (Fig. 2) age 25, was therefore sent to 

 the islands. He had been "artist of the Smithsonian Institution 

 and the private secretary of Joseph Henry [first director of the 

 Smithsonian]" (Elliott 1904:9). As a special Treasury agent he 

 arrived on St. Paul Island on 28 April 1872. Throughout a long 

 career, which ended with his death in Seattle on 25 May 1930 

 at the age of 83, he maintained a burning interest in fur seals. 

 As surveyor, naturalist, author, lecturer, artist, and lobbyist 

 he was the first man to give wide publicity to the habits, envi- 

 ronment, and exploitation of the Pribilof seals. His reports 

 were published and republished, especially in Government 

 documents. He last gave testimony on the fur seal herd in 

 1926, at the age of 80. 



On his first assignment he was astonished to find no written 

 record of the location or size of any rookery or an estimate of 



Figure 2.— Henry W. Elliott (1845-1930), first naturalist to study the Alaskan 

 fur seals. He was 25 when he landed on St. Paul Island in the spring of 1872 

 (photo by V. B. Scheffer). 



