St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1888-01-28
SEALS AND SEALSkINS
Where the Most Valuable Fur-Bearin
Species Are Found.

Where the Most Valuable Fur-Bearins
Species Are Found.
While great many people ire inter-
ested in sealskins, most of them have q
rather vague idea as to the animal
from which they are stripped
Every spring, when it is announced
that the Juan Maven hunters have
brought 10000, 10000, so, 900 or 60, 900
to Dundee. OF that those who rendez-
vous at St. Johns or Harbor Grace
have landed 200, 900 or more, the prints
which especially concern themselves
with ladies' dress are filled
with jubilation over the ap.
preaching cheapness of the fur to pos
sess which seems to constitute the acme
of female ambition, In reality these
captures off Newfoundland or in the
Arctic sea have no effect whatever OH
the fur market. They are chair
seals, of no value except for their hides,
out of which leather is made, or for
| their blubber. No fur seals, in the
sealskin-jacket sense of the term, are
| found in the North At.
lantic. They are almost en- tirelv con-
fined to the North and South Pacific
From the South Shetlands and the
Georgian Islands, the seals, once SO
abundant, have almost vanished; and
neither St. Paul's nor the Crozets,
nor Marion Isle, the Elephant Isle and
Amsterdam, nor even the Tristan da
Cunha yield any thing like the number
they once did. The early adventures
who first fell among the 'Rookeriesn
in these localities seem to have had
such glorious time that their less for |
tunate successors can not help envying
them, even at the distance of century, |
though sealskins were not so valuable |
in those far-away days. In 1900 when
the fur-seal business was at its height |
at the Georgian Islands, $4,000 seals
were taken, of which $1,000 were Sc
cured by q single ship. Between the
years 1920 and 1921 over 800, 900 seals
were taken at the South Shetland
Islands alone, though, in addition to
the number of old ones killed
for their fur, not fewer than
one hundred thousand newly born
young died in consequence of the de-
struction of their mothers So indis-
criminate was the slaughter that when
ever seal reached the beach, no mat
ter what age, it was Immediately
dubbed. The result of this butcherv
was soon apparent In 1922 the enor-
nous herds in the South Shetlands had
been exterminated, and in 1880 sealing
in the South Sea was pronounced los
ing business, the old resorts of the an
imals having been abandoned or
cleared OUT so that hunters had to
go further afield or be content with
profits much smaller or much more
precarous. At this day fur seals of
different species are picked up all
through the Antarctic and SUDAN
tarctic regions, as we'll as along the
coast of Japan and Siberia, as far as
the Kuirires and Bchr-
ing Strait. From California, north
ward three species are found. A
few are seen on the shores of Cali
fornia, Oregon and Washington Terri
tory, and the Indians of Vancouver Is
land and British Columbia find mod
crate profit in those which they kill. 1t
is, however, not until the Prybiloy, or
Seal Islands, off the shores of Alaska,
are reached that the fur seal attains its
maximum These islets are leased by
,he United States Government to a
,on,p, orria1 corroor who ora boup1 |
BY their contract, made in pursuance i
If an act of Congress. not to kill more 6
han Is, 900 year on St. Paul's Island,
u more than $1,000 on st. Georges Is 3
and. though the Secretary of the c
Treasury has power to alter the ratio +
or each island if he pleases, or to +
xtend the period for killing them from
[une to the 18th of August, and G
hen after an interval during Septem- 5
'er and October. The killing of fe- .
male seals and seals less than one year f
I'D and, among other regulations to +
he same effect. the use of firearms or /
ther means tending 10 drive the seals |
way from the islands are expressly /;
orbidden. No dogs are permitted on /
he islands, and no vessels other than r
hose employed by the company are d
ermitted to touch there or land any i
ersons or merchandise, except in case r
f shipwreck or vessels in distress. y
he method of capture is to drive the Fl
calls into heads or pods, " where they d
re leisurely dispatched by the blows 0
+ club on the head. London Stand s
lrd. "
Antiquarian Discovery. :.