Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-10-10
SEAL LIES IN RsHRINe SEA.
An Interesting Interview with Special
Agent Williams.

an interesting lnterFteW Win special
Agent Williams.
New YORK, Oct. TO- There has
been too much science and not enough
common sense in treating the subject of
seal life in Behring sea-" The speaker,
according to Washington special, was
Special Agent Williams, of the treasury
department, who was sent to Alaskan
waters last spring to superintend the
killing-of seal on the Pribyloff islands.
l had been speaking with him about the
report made by Professor Elliott, of the
Smithsonian institution year ago,
wherein that gentleman contended that
the method of killing seals on land was
more destructive than deep sea poaching.
Pelagic Sealing.
"There is no trouble about the killing
on land, Mr.. Williams went on. "The
methods employed are satisfactory, and
the greatest care is exercised in sort
ing the males from the females. 1t is
the deep sea-pelagic sealing, as it is
called-that is 30 rapidly decimating the
animals"
at is said that half dozen seal are
destroyed for everyone that is captured
III lttC WdICIs lS LIldb BIdD6IuGllL
rectY l asked.
'It varies with the crews. Some
crews are more expert than others.
With some crews the proportion is only 3
to |. With others it is often as high as 10
to l. l should say that the average
was about to l."
Price'of Sealskins.
'It is reported" / said, "that the
price of sealskins has very materially
advanced within the past few days. Is
that due to the scarcity of skins on the
market"
II doubt if that statement is true"
Mr.. Williams replied. There will
probably be as many skins on the
market this year as there were last year.
In 1890 the North American CONNER
cial company took $1,000 skins This
year the catch was only half that
amount, but to this must be added
that were left ON the islands
last season, and which will also be
thrown on the markets The poachers,
no doubt, secured 10000 skins or there
abouts. / have no means of knowing |
what the Russians did, but l don't sup
pose their catch fell off any. So you see
there ought to be nothing in the situa-
ton to cause any appreciable advance in
prices.
Moreover, the company would great
ly deprecate any increase in the manu- |
factured product The effect could not
but be hurtful to them. Why? Be-
cause it would make the articles so ex-
pensive as practically to prohibit their |
sale. In other words, if the present |
price of $500 were advanced to $500 the
the dealer would soon find a substitute |
for the sealskin garments that would |
drive the former out of the market.
don't know what the substitute would be
but it would come sure"
How to Prevent Poaohing.
"How are we going to prevent poach-
ing in the futureY
''It can only be prevented by some |
sort of international agreement that will |
permit us to seize not only any vessel
found sealing in Behring sea, but any
vessel having skins on board. Armed |
with those instructions few vessels
could patrol those waters successfully.
The three-mile limit is no special protec-
tion to us. 1t is comparatively an easy
matter for schooners to run in close to
the rocks on foggy nights and send a
boat ashore and kill the seals in their
rookeries. The weather there is often
so foggy that you can't see twenty feet
in front of you"
Russia Shoots.
"Why don't the poachers go over to
the Russian side of the sea and follow
their avocation there?"
Because" said Captain Williams,
grimly, "the Russians shoot. That is
the reason. If we had adopted that pol
cy in 1885 and 1887 we would have no
Doaching. These Canadian sealers have
5he greatest contempt for us. We issue
stringent orders to our revenue cutters,
Dut we don't execute them. The result
IS that they have no fears of us, but set
about their operations with an absolute
for us. We ought not to allow
. seal to be killed in Behring sea except
with our sanction"
Seals disappearing.
"And the seals are disappearing
There is no doubt as to that Unless
iome measure of protection is afforded
hem, it will become lost industry.
You can figure it out for yourself. If
he poachers got 10000 that shows that
80, 900 must have been destroyed. Add
o this the number legitimately taken