Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-06

clears up she will not be lying right under
| the guns of one of these police vessels?
"There have been about 100 OF 100 sealing
sohooners busily engaged In shooting and
| spearing fur seals off Kodiak and the Shoo-
magins, and think that they have secured
about 45, 600 to 30, 900 skina We will know
by the 14th or 10th of this month, and not
until then, the result of the seasons catch
by these people.
''These vessels, I think, will go over into
Kamchatkan waters, because Russia is not
in this modus vivendi that we share with
Great Britain; it has been thought
queer by some that Russia has not
entered the agreement, but things
move very slowly in the circles OF
autocratic Russia, and the manner in which
public affairs reach the emperor is one that
we do not understand over here, and very
likely would not tolerate, if practiced, but
for moment
The Russian Seal Islands
will be exposed to a deadly attack this COM
ing season, and they will suffer as they
have never suffered before; the result will
no doubt stimulate the needed activity and
interest that is lacking on the part of
Russia SO that it can be safely predicted.
Thus far, since the open water sealing began
in 1SS6-S7 to be anv kind of an extensive
business, all the schooners that could get a
chance to enter Bering Sea on our side did
so, because our fur seals wear q better skin
than their Russian relatives do, the differ
ence in value being nearly twice as great in
favor of the Alaskan pelts; then, too, until
1890 the great female herd of the Pribylov
Islands was far more numerous than that of
the Kommandor Islands of Russia, and the
open water sealers had a better field also
for following the fur seals on the American
side than they have over against Asia
"But it is very doubtful TODAY whether
the remnant of the Pribylov breeding herd
is any larger than that of the Russian
islands. In 1872, when we had extra figures
as to the numbers of our herd, nothing of
the kind was extant as to those of the
Kamchatkan side of Bering Sea Nothing
but vague estimates were given in answer
to all queries and these estimates then in
dicated that the Russian rookeries were not
quite half as large in the aggregate as those
of Alaska Our herd has, however, drawn
nearly all the fire of the open water sealing
feet and has been so decimated that it is
safe to saw that the muscovite rookeries sre,
if anything, more densely populated than
those which we are trying so hard to save
on the Pribylov Islands.
Tho Carroes of Fur Seaiskins.
eff it were not for the fact that these car
goes of fur seal-skins which the little
schooners collect must be transhipped so as
to pass over to London through Canada or
the United States the salvation of the fur
seal herds of Alaska and Russia could not
be accomplished without drawing into a
convention all the civilized powers of the
earth. If these csrgoes could go down by
way of Panama or the Suez canal then the
agreement now projected between Great
Britain and ourselves and Russia also
would not shut out vessel flying the Ger
man, the French, Spanish or Italian flag
from the open waters of Bering See. But
the simple act of closing Russian, British
and American ports in the north Pacific to
these sealers and making their cargoes liza
BILE to confscation is quite enough, for
they cannot go down into tropical waters
safely with their cargoes imperfectly
cured, as they are only able to cure them in
the bilges OF their small craft.
'It may be necessary to call japan into
this agreement at Paris and the Sandwich
Islands, too, since German vessel, for in
stance, might take cargo of sealskins to
Yokohama and there have them properly
cured and salted and repacked in casks, so
that these skins could then be safely
shipped via Suez or Panama to London.
This, however, involves good deal of de-
lay and extra cost, and unless done on