, 1889-05-02
FUR SEALS OF CAPE HORN.

Ever since the Alaska Commercial
company has had the lease of the
PribIoff Islands they have kept up
the continual assertion that all the
seals Of the North Pacific Ocean an
nually resort to the islands OF st.
Paul and st. George in Behring Sea.
and that the promiscous killing of
those seals would soCn exterminate
them: and the assertion is also made
so often. in proof of this statement,
that the seals of Cape Horn which
formerly were SO plentiful have all
been exterminated by sealers from
New London and other New England
ports, that the company begin to be-
iieve their own lies which they have
for twenty years succeeded in making
every one in Washington believe, and
also that if the ALASKA Commercial
Company do not have a renewal OF
their lease all the fur seals will soon
be destroyed, like the wild buffalo of
the plains.
But, unfortunately for the com
pany, their statement can be proved
to be false, as they themselves know
full we'll. The trade sale of furs in
London is a simple, plain commercial
fact, and by the printed circulars
that are sent to every fur dealer We
see that in London, on the 1st of
February, 1889 there were sold at
auction 1850 fur seal skins from Cape
Horn, mostly taken by one vessel
which had yenturea down there from
an eastern port
Yesterday Capt Joshua Brown,
of Salem, Massachusetts, who is now
in this city. received letter from
Capt r. o. Lavender, of Schooner
Henry Dennis, which sailed from
Salem Nov. 80, 1883, for Port Towns
end. from which we have been kindly
permitted to make the following ex-
tract.
This letter, which is dated at Good
Success Bay, Cape Horn, Feb. 2, 1889,
says: "The Argentine Republic is
putting up light houses on Staten
Island and on San Diego Cape, and
have a settlement at Good Success
Bay SO that shipwrecked sailors can
have q shelter. There are plenty OF
fur seals on the islands off Staten
land; they have their rookeries there
but are through breeding now as
they breed here earlier than they do
in northern waters. II l could have
been here two months sooner would
have gone to the rookeries and got a
part of trip in no time"
The Henry Dennis was to have
sailed on the 9Th for Port Townsend
and reached here yesterday.
At the London trade sale in Feb
ruary, 1888, $4,000 fur seal skins from
Cape Horn were placed on sale,
and still the claqILerS of the Alaska
Commercial Company in Washing
ton keep up their senseless cry that
fur seals will be exterm:nated in
Behring sea as they have been at
Cape Horn if any one but Louis
Schloss and company have the killing
OF them. The truth is that fur seals
can no moro be e1terminated from
the waters of the Pacific ocean than
the herring, cod, halibut and other
fish. 1t is true that they can be
driven from a rookery, but they can-
not be eIterminated. We believe
that the rookeries should be pro-
tected by the g overnment, but we be-
lieye and will maintain that outside
of the three-mile limit our fishermen
have perfect right and should be en-
couraged is pursuing their honorable
ayocation OF catching fish of all
kinds, and of taking whale, walruss,
sea lions, fur and hair seal and any
pother roiitable fish or mamsial in the
osean. The public are beginning to
realize that all this talk about Behr-
ing sea is not for the public good,
not to procure food for the human
family, but to pander to the cap
riccs of the fashionable wealthy, and
for the single benefit of one single
great monopoly, the Alaska Com
mercial Company. If this policy is
continued and that company or any
other monopoly secures another
twenty-years lease of the Pribloti is
lands and our own citizens are de-
barred the right to fish or hunt in our
own waters, 1t will do more to pre-
vent the growth of the state of Wash
ington than any scheme which could
be devised. Behring sea and all the
waters of the North Pacific should be
open and free to all; and every true
American should lift his voice in
earnest protest against any project
which will deprive our citizens of
their just rights, and prevent the
masses of the people, both poor and
rich, from procuring a cheap article
of nutritious food simply and solely
to fill the Golfers of rich monopoly.
The facts which We have stated of
the existence of fur seal at Cape
Horn, where the Alaska Commercial
Company say they have been ex-
terminated prove that the fur seals
have again returned to their former
hsunts, and that we are correct when
we assert that they cannot be ex-
terminated. We hope our citizens.
and especially our Chamber OF Com
merce will look into the matter, and
when the senate committee on rela-
tions with Canada come here next
month we may be prepared with such
convincing facts as may induce the
government to encourage the fisher
men and protect the fish. instead o.
fattening the Alaska Commercial
Company by protecting the seals,
and driving our vessels from Behring
sea.
Dnrinp the past week $4,000 emf