122 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
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- 
runiier of pelagic sealing around the Commander Islands. It was claimed by the crew 
of the C. 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 flred upon three of the boats as 
they attempted to land, killing one man and wounding two, while seven bullets went 
through the boats. However, as the schooner was not captni ed, the men were sent 
back to San Francisco in the company’s steamer. While it is true that the James 
Ilamilton Leiois (formerly the Ada) was caught right under the South Rookery of 
Bering Island in 1891, by the Russian war vessel Aleut, it is certain that many of the 
410 skins (90 jier cent of which it has been stated Avere females) confiscated were killed 
at sea. 
When but few seals were left on Robben Island and the Kurils to raid, the schoon- 
ers fitting out in Japan turned their attention to folloAving up the Commander Islands 
herd on its nortlnvard 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 Amssels 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 comxiaratively unimportant role u]a to 1892.’ 
The latter year saw the total jirohibition 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 Avay when they were informed of the closing of Bering Sea, 
the result being that (piite a number of the Amssels, rather than return home, made 
straight for the Commander Islands to try their luck' there. Ko less than 32 Canadian 
vessels crossed over to the Russian side after having completed their coast catch. 
In addition, there seems to have been 5 British schooners sailing from Japan, 
consequently altogether 37 British A^essels. To these* must be added a few American 
schooners, of which I have no detailed account at hand. Cajit. Charles Lutjens, in 
the Kate and Anna, caught about 150 seals ‘‘between from 40 to 100 miles south of the 
Commander Islands, and these Avere seized and confiscated” (Fur Seal Arb., viii, p. 
714). The Henry Dennis obtained 189 seals, as detailed elsewhere in this report. 
These facts are shown in more detail in the following table, which is extracted 
from the record of the entire British Columbia sealing fleet, as given in the Twenty- 
fifth Annual Report of the Canadian Department of Marine and Fisheries (pt. li, iip- 
60-61). 
* The British Bering Sea eomniissioners, writing in .Tune, 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 heginuiug was made already in 1891, though on a 
small scale. Capt. Chas. Lutjens, of Sail Francisco, owner of the schooner Kate and Anna, states (Fur 
Seal Arb., Aun, p. 715) that on going into Bering Sea on June 6, 1891, he was warned out, and went 
directly to the Russian side, Avhere he got 450 seals. The Penelope, Capt. J. W. Todd, of A'ictoria, 
was also there that year; also Beatrice, Capt M. Keefe, who got 500 seals there; Unibrina, Capt. J, 
Matthews, 30 seals; Maud S., Capt. A. McKeil, and probably several others. 
