Damages claimed by Charles August Lundberg, Chief Mate of the British Schooner “ Ada,” for illegal arrest and detention by the United States' Revenue Cutter "Bear," and by the United States' Marshal at Sitka, from August 25 to October 4, 1887.

British Columbia, to wit.

I, Charles August Lundberg, of Victoria, British Columbia, do solemnly and sincerely declare :

1. That I sailed from the city of Victoria, as chief mate of the British schooner "Ada," on the 17th day of June, 1887, on a sealing voyage to the Behring's Sea.

2. That on the 25th day of August, 1887, in the Behring's Sea, and while engaged in the lawful business of the said voyage, the schooner "Ada" was seized and taken possession of by the United States' revenue-cutter "Bear." The officers of the said cutter placed a crew on board of the said schooner, and towed her to Ounalaska.

3. At Ounalaska our cargo of seal-skins was taken out of the said schooner against the protest of the captain, and before our having a hearing before any legal Tribunal. I was then forced to go on the seized schooner, in charge of a United States' DeputyMarshal, to Sitka, for trial, arriving at Sitka on the 5th day of September, 1887.

4. Upon arrival at Sitka the schooner was handed over to the United States' Marshal, and I was kept on board the vessel until the 9th day of the same month, when I was released.

5. I was without means or provisions, and nothing was done towards enabling me to return to my home until the 25th September, 1887, when I was sent on board the United States' revenue-cutter "Rush," and taken to Victoria, where I arrived on the 4th day of October, 1887.

6. For my damages, by reason of my illegal arrest and detention as aforesaid, I claim the sum of 2,000 dollars.

And I make this solemn declaration, conscientiously believing the same to be true, and by virtue of "The Oaths Ordinance, 1869."

(Signed)

C. A. LUNDBERG.

Declared at Victoria, British Columbia, this 9th day of November, A.D. 1887, before me,

My Lord,

Mr. Phelps to the Marquis of Salisbury.-(Received February 18.)

Legation of the United States, London, February 17, 1888. I HAVE the honour to inclose a printed copy of an important note relative to the Alaska seal fisheries which I have just received from my Government. It has reference

to the proposal for some International Regulations at those fisheries which I had the honour to submit in general terms to your Lordship in a personal interview on the 17th November last, and which I then promised to ask my Government to state more precisely.

As the matter is one that, as it appears to the United States' Government, should be dealt with immediately, and in which I presume both Governments will readily concur, I shall be glad of the honour of an interview with your Lordship at as early a day next week as may be convenient and agreeable to you, when the proposed restrictions and the method of carrying them into effect can be considered.

Sir,

Mr. Bayard to Mr. Phelps.

Department of State, Washington, February 7, 1888.

I HAVE received your despatch of the 12th November last, containing an account of your interview with Lord Salisbury of the preceding day, in which his Lordship expressed acquiescence in my proposal of an agreement between the United States and Great Britain

in regard to the adoption of concurrent regulations for the preservation of fur seals in Behring's Sea from extermination by destruction at improper seasons and by improper methods by the citizens of either country.

In response to his Lordship's suggestion that this Government submit a sketch of a system of regulations for the purpose indicated, it may be expedient, before making a definite proposition, to describe some of the conditions of seal life. And for this purpose it is believed that a concise statement as to that part of the life of the seal which is spent in Behring's Sea will be sufficient.

All those who have made a study of the seals in Behring's Sea are agreed that, on an average, from five to six months-that is to say, from the middle or towards the end of spring till the middle or end of October-are spent by them in those waters in breeding and in rearing their young. During this time they have their rookeries on the Islands of St. Paul and St. George, which constitute the Pribyloff group and belong to the United States, and on the Commander Islands, which belong to Russia. But the number of animals resorting to the latter group is small in comparison with that resorting to the former. The rest of the year they are supposed to spend in the open sea south of the Aleutian Islands.

Their migration northward, which has been stated as taking place during the spring and till the middle of June, is made through the numerous passes in the long chain of the Aleutian Islands; above which the courses of their travel converge chiefly to the Pribyloff group. During this migration the female seals are so advanced in pregnancy that they generally give birth to their young, which are commonly called pups, within two weeks after reaching the rookeries. Between the time of the birth of the pups and of the emigration of the seals from the islands in the autumn the females are occupied in suckling their young; and by far the largest part of the seals found at a distance from the islands in Behring's Sea during the summer and early autumn are females in search of food, which is made doubly necessary to enable them to suckle their young as well as to support a condition of renewed pregnancy, which begins in a week or a little more after their delivery.

The male seals, or bulls, as they are commonly called, require little food while on the islands, where they remain guarding their harems, watching the rookeries, and sustaining existence on the large amount of blubber which they have secreted beneath their skins and which is gradually absorbed during the five or six succeeding months.

Moreover it is impossible to distinguish the male from the female seals in the water, or pregnant females from those that are not so. When the animals are killed in the water with firearms many sink at once and are never recovered, and some authorities state that not more than one out of three of those so slaughtered is ever secured. This may, however, be an over-estimate of the number lost.

It is thus apparent that to permit the destruction of the seals by the use of firearms, nets, or other mischievous means in Behring's Sea would result in the speedy extermination of the race. There appears to be no difference of opinion on this subject among experts. And the fact is so clearly and forcibly stated in the Report of the Inspector of Fisheries for British Columbia of the 31st of December, 1886, that I will quote therefrom the following pertinent passage:

"There were killed this year, so far, from 40,000 to 50,000 fur seals which have been taken by schooners from San Francisco and Victoria. The greater number were killed in Behring's Sea, and were nearly all cows or female seals. This enormous catch, with the increase which will take place when the vessels fitting up every year are ready, will, I am afraid, soon deplete our fur seal fishery, and it is a great pity that such a valuable industry could not in some way be protected."

[Report of Thomas Mowat, Inspector of Fisheries for British Columbia; Sessional Papers, Vol. 15, No. 16, p. 268; Ottawa, 1887.]

The only way of obviating the lamentable result above predicted appears to be by the United States, Great Britain, and other interested Powers taking concerted action to prevent their citizens or subjects from killing fur seals with firearms, or other destructive weapons, north of 50° of north latitude, and between 160° of longitude west and 170° of longitude east from Greenwich, during the period intervening between 15th April and 1st November. To prevent the killing within a marine belt of forty or fifty miles from the Islands during that period would be ineffectual as a preservative measure. This would clearly be so during the approach of the seals to the Islands. And after their arrival there such a limit of protection would also be insufficient; since the rapid progress of the seals through the water enables them to go great distances from the islands in so short a time that it has been calculated that an ordinary seal could go to the Aleutian Islands and back, in all a distance of 360 or 400 miles, in less than a day.

On the Pribyloff Islands themselves, where the killing is at present under the direction

of the Alaska Commercial Company, which by the terms of its contract is not permitted to take over 100,000 skins a year, no females, pups, or old bulls are ever killed, and thus the breeding of the animals is not interfered with. The old bulls are the first to reach the islands, where they await the coming of the females. As the young bulls arrive they are driven away by the old bulls to the sandy part of the islands, by themselves. And these are the animals that are driven inland and there killed by clubbing, so that the skins are no perforated and discrimination is exercised in each case.

That the extermination of the fur seals must soon take place unless they are protected from destruction in Behring's Sea is shown by the fate of the animal in other parts of the world, in the absence of concerted action among the nations interested for its preservation. Formerly many thousands of seals were obtained annually from the South Pacific Islands, and from the coasts of Chili and South Africa. They were also common in the Falkland Islands and the adjacent seas. But in those islands, where hundreds of thousands of skins were formerly obtained, there have been taken, according to best statistics, since 1880, less than 1,500 skins. In some places the indiscriminate slaughter, especially by use of firearms, has in a few years resulted in completely breaking up extensive rookeries.

At the present time it is estimated that out of an aggregate yearly yield of 185,000 seals from all parts of the globe over 130,000, or more than two-thirds, are obtained from the rookeries on the American and Russian islands in Behring's Sea. Of the remainder, the larger part are taken in Behring's Sea, although such taking, at least on such a scale, in that quarter is a comparatively recent thing. But if the killing of the fur seal there with fire-arms, nets, and other destructive implements were permitted, hunters would abandon other exhausted places of pursuit for the more productive field of Behring's Sea, where extermination of this valuable animal would also rapidly ensue.

It is manifestly for the interests of all nations that so deplorable a thing should not be allowed to occur. As has already been stated, on the Pribyloff Islands this Government strictly limits the number of seals that may be killed under its own lease to an American Company; and citizens of the United States have, during the past year, been arrested, and ten American vessels seized for killing fur seals in Behring's Sea.

England, however, has an especially great interest in this matter, in addition to that which she must feel in preventing the extermination of an animal which contributes so much to the gain and comfort of her people. Nearly all undressed fur seal skins are sent to London, where they are dressed and dyed for the market, and where many of them are sold. It is stated that at least 10,000 people in that city find profitable employment in this work; far more than the total number of people engaged in hunting the fur seal in every part of the world. At the Pribyloff Islands it is believed that there are not more than 400 persons so engaged; at Commander Islands, not more than 300; in the north-west coast fishery, not more than 525 Indian hunters and 100 whites; and in the Cape Horn fishery not more than 400 persons, of whom perhaps 300 are Chileans. Great Britain, therefore, in cooperating with the United States to prevent the destruction of fur seals in Behring's Sea, would also be perpetuating an extensive and valuable industry in which her own citizens have the most lucrative share.

I inclose for your information copy of a Memorandum on the fur seal fisheries of the world prepared by Mr. A. Howard Clark, in response to a request made by this Department to the United States' Fish Commissioner. I inclose also, for your further information, copy of a letter to me dated the 3rd December last, from Mr. Henry W. Elliott, who has spent much time in Alaska, engaged in the study of seal life, upon which he is well known as an authority. I desire to call your special attention to what is said by Mr. Elliott in respect to the new method of catching the seals with nets.

As the subject of this despatch is one of great importance and of immediate urgency, I will ask that you give it as early attention as possible.

I am, &c.

Review of the Fur Seal Fisheries of the World in 1887, by A. Howard Clark.

IN the "Encyclopædia Britannica," ninth edition, the fur seal fisheries are credited with an annual yield of 185,000 skins, of which 100,000 are said to be obtained from the Pribyloff Islands, 30,000 from the Commander Islands, 15,000 from the Straits of Juan de Fuca and vicinity, 12,000 from the Lobos Islands, 15,000 from Patagonia and outlying islands, 500 from the Falkland Islands, 10,000 from the Cape of Good Hope and places thereabout, and 2,500 from islands belonging to Japan.

The above statistics were communicated by me to the author of the article "Seal

Fisheries" in the "Encyclopædia," and had been carefully verified by the latest official records and by a personal interview with Messrs. C. M. Lampson and Co., of London, one of the principal fur houses of the world, and by whom most of the annual production of fur seal-skins are placed upon the market.

A review of the subject at this time (January 1888) necessitates but a slight change in the annual production and in the apportionment to the several fisheries. Some of the fisheries have increased, while others have decreased. Taking the average annual yield from 1880 to date, I find that the total production is now 192,457 skins, obtained as follows:-

The Statistics for the Pribyloff and Commander Islands are compiled from Reports of the Alaska Commercial Company, Mr. Elliott's Reports in Vol. viii, 10th Census, and in Section 5, United States' Fish Commission Report, and Trade Reports of annual sales in London ("Fur Trade Review," published monthly at No. 11, Bond Street, New York). The north-west coast statistics are from the annual Reports of the Department of Fisheries of Canada, and from Mr. Swan's Report in Section 5, vol. ii, of the quarto report of the United States' Fish Commission. For Japan, Lobos Islands, Cape of Good Hope, and Falkland Islands the statistics are from the "Annual Statements of the Trade of the United Kingdom with Foreign Countries and British Possessions as presented to ParliaStatistics for Cape Horn region are from sealing merchants of Stonington and New London, Connecticut.

ment."

The details of the fisheries for a series of years are shown in the following Table. (As to the number of persons employed, it is not possible to give details in all cases. At Pribyloff Islands, in 1880, there were 372 Aleuts and 18 whites. At Commander Islands there are about 300 persons. In the North-west coast fishery 523 Indian hunters and 100 whites, and in the Cape Horn fishery about 400 whites, of whom, perhaps, 300 are Chileans.)

NUMBER of Fur Seal Skins from Principal Fisheries: 1871 to 1887.
(Compiled from official sources by A. H. Clark. No returns for spaces blank.)

The second point upon which information is requested is "that of the destruction the fur seal, resulting either in its extermination or the diminution of its yield in places where it formerly abounded," &c.

At the beginning of the present century there were great rookeries of fur seal at Falkland Islands, at the South Shetlands, at Masafuera, at South Georgia, and at many other places throughout the Antarctic region. These places were visited by sealing-vessels, and indiscriminate slaughter of the animals resulted in the extermination of the species, or in such diminution in their numbers that the fishery became unprofitable.

The details of the Antarctic fishery are given in Section 5, vol. ii, of the quarto Report of the United States' Fish Commission, pp. 400-467; in Report by H. W. Elliott on "Seal Islands of Alaska," 6, pp. 117-124 (reprinted in vol. viii, 10th Census Reports); in "Monograph of North American Pinnipeds," by J. A. Allen (Misc. Pub., xii, United States' Geological Survey); in "Fanning's Voyages Round the World" (New York, 1833); in "Narrative of Voyages and Travels in Northern and Southern Hemispheres," by Amasa Delano (Boston, 1817); and in numerous other works, to which reference will be found in the above volumes.

A few men are still living who participated in the Antarctic seal fisheries years ago. Their stories of the former abundance of fur seals I have obtained in personal interviews. As to the manner of destruction there is but one thing to say: an indiscriminate slaughter of old and young, male and female, in a few years results in the breaking up of the largest rookeries, and, as in the case of Masafuera and the Falkland Islands, the injury seems to be a permanent one. As an instance, the South Shetlands were first visited in 1819, when fur seals were very abundant; two vessels in a short time securing full fares. In 1820 thirty vessels hastened to the islands, and in a few weeks obtained upwards of 250,000 skins, while thousands of seals were killed and lost. In 1821-22 Weddell* says: "320,000 skins were taken.. The system of extermination was practised, ever a seal reached the beach, of whatever denomination, he was immediately killed and his skin taken; and by this means, at the end of the second year, the animals became nearly extinct. The young, having lost their mothers when only three or four days old, of course died, which, at the lowest calculation, exceeded 100,000." In subsequent years, until 1845, these islands were occasionally visited by vessels in search of seal-skins, but never after 1822 were many animals found there. About 1845 the Antarctic fur-sealing was abandoned. In 1871 the industry was renewed, and a few vessels secured some valuable furs from the South Shetlands, but in a few years voyages there became unprofitable. (See sec. 5, vol. ii, United States' Fish Commission Report, pp. 402-458.)

for when

The same story may be told of Masafuera, from which island about 3,500,000 fur seal-skins were taken between the years 1793 and 1807. (See sec. 5, as above, p. 407.) Captain Morrell states that in 1807 "the business was scarcely worth following at Masafuera, and in 1824 the island, like its neighbour Juan Fernandez, was almost entirely abandoned by these animals." (Morrell's Voyage: New York, 1832, p. 130.) Scarcely any seals have since been found at Masafuera. Delano states that in 1797 there were two or three million fur seals on that island. Elliott, in his Report already cited, gives accounts of earlier voyages to Masafuera, &c. I have consulted log-books and journals of several voyages, all agreeing in the former abundance, and the extermination of the fur seal on Masafuera as well as on other Antarctic or southern islands.

At the Falkland Islands both fur seals and sea-lions abounded, but there, too, they were destroyed.

The sealing business at South Georgia was most prosperous in 1800, during which season sixteen American and English vessels took 112,000 fur seal-skins. Though not as important a rookery as some of the other islands, considerable numbers of fur seals have been taken from South Georgia. Since 1870 some good cargoes of elephant seal oil have been taken there.

Fur seals were abundant at the Tristan d'Acunha Islands at the beginning of the century, and because of the almost inaccessible caves and rocks to which they resort a few have survived—or, at least, as late as 1873 a few were annually taken there.

On the west coast of Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope to the 16th degree of south latitude, there was until 1870 a considerable number of fur seals of an inferior quality, but they are now practically exhausted, the few skins marketed as coming from there being taken on various hauling grounds on islets farther south and east. (See sec. 5, vol. ii, United States' Fish Commission Report, p. 415.)

The Prince Edward group, Crozet Islands, Kerguelen Land, and other smaller islands in the Southern Indian and Southern Pacific Oceans, were important seal fisheries both for

* "Weddell's Voyages," p. 130, quoted in Section V, vol. ii, quarto Report of United States' Fish Commission,

p. 407.

f