, 1891-10-31

znd, and, while the cruise was relieved of much
OF the monotony of the ordinary life afoat in
time OF peace, officers and men are not at all
sorry that the work of ordering sealers out of
6ehtlng Sea is, for them, at an end.
10 Gunner Thomas Harding the Colonist is
indebted for the appended interesting memo.
of the cruise just completed. He says "Lcav-
ing Esquimait on July md for a cruise in
Behring Sea, W. arrived at Ounalaska ten days
later. finding that the Nymphe had just left.
The Mohican went out the same evening. but
the Thetis and the Alert remained in port.
Our run up was marked by heavy seas, heavy
winds and thick fogs-not a very pleasant
combination On July 10th we weighed
anchor and proceeded out of Ounalaska on our
mission. The same day We overhauled the
Thistle, a steam Sealer, which we ordered home.
On the 10th we found the Geneva at anchor
IN the hunting grounds, with her seven boats
out. Our first lieutenant went on board the
schooner with q copy of the proclamation,
and the schooner set sail for ZONE as soon as
the boats got in. She had at that time. sent
100 skins down, amt reported 1875 skins re-
naming on board. On the 18th we ordered
away the American schooner San Diego, of San
Francisco she had no skins and had only lust
reached the sea the day before. The Triumph
with l,O09 skins, q portion of which catch
had been sent home, came next, and then, on :
the 18th, the Katherine. The latter schooner
we didn't board, though we gave her orders to
go home, the sea being too rough for us to lower
a boat The same day we picked up the little
schooner Labrador. She tried hard to get
away, but came to, as soon as We fired our
signal gun. Her luck had not been bad she
secured so skins in one day with four boats
out.
90 .Iu1u 10Th Uvn o,riv ~ O. Do,1to TcJopl
in thick fog, finding the Nymphe, the Mohican,
the Thetis, and the Alert there. We had a
splendid opportunity of studying seal life
during our short stay. The island was fairly
black with seals, there being half a million at
a low estimate. On the Goth, we went out with
the Nymphe in search of sealers, and succeed
ed in not finding any. We ran across three
whaling ships, however, and there can be little
doubt that while these whalers are such osten-
sibly, they have no objection to picking up a
few seals if they get the chance. On the 21st
we went ashore, and saw 200 seals killed by
tbs natives for their food supply. The seal
is meat, drink, light, heat, in fact, everything
to these people, and they have to kill at least
once a week in order to keep themselves in
provisions fit to eat. They can say what they
choose, 1000 was a moderate estimate of the
seals actually equired by these same Indians. AT
ter spending some time at the island and enjoy
able, too, the Nymphe and the Pheasant start
ed out, in fog so thick that we were forced to
syren to each other continually in order to.
avoid collision.
"In company with the Danube, bearing the
British Commissioners, Sir George Baden Q
Powell and DIR. Dawson, we reached St.
Georges Island on August LIST the Commis-
sioners went ashore, and the scenes witnessed
at St. Paul's were again enacted, but on a
smaller scale, there being only about one.tenth
as many seals. Sir George was determined to
have practical experience, and dubbed a seal
to death with the skill Of one used to the
business. Each seal killed was carefully ex-
amined, being cut open to permit q minute
inspection of stomach, intestineS, etc. One
very strange thing noted about all the animals
slaughtered on the islands was that the only
articles found in their stomachs were a few
small black pebbles. Food was an unknown
quantity, and we were forced to admit, though
we could not understand, that seals are unlike
all other animals in being able to sustain life
without food. from seal rOckeries we went
to the home of the sea lions, some of which
were met with weighing half a ton. =.
"On August 9th we were at st. Matthews
Island-we were furthest north of any of the
patrol-in fog SO thick that we had to lower
the steam cutter to find the land. Our cap
tain and first lieutenant joined the Commits
sioners on August 18th, and with them visit