The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-22
PLENTY OF sEAIsKINS.
Last Seasons Catch the Biggest on Record Despite the Restrictions.
 TFrom the Boston Herald

[From the Boston Herald.l
 MT. w. c. Roberts, United States con- sul at Victoria, B, C., has just sent to the state department a summary of the report on the seal catch of 1894, pre- pared by MT. A. R. Milne. collector of customs at Victoria.
 The catch was the largest ever made in single year, The total Canadian catch was 94474, a little over %, 900 more than the catch of 1893. The number of vessels employed were fifty-nine, four more than went out the year before. The crews contained in all LAOS men, of whom SIS were Indians. The canoe catch by Indians alone amounted to 1889.
 A good many people have wondered whether or not the seal herd is in dan ger of extinction if operations are con tinued under the regulations at present existing, Mir. Milne says that the pro portion of males is much larger than Americans have contended it would be. Pelagic sealing, they held, was dispro- portionately fatal to the females
 put dlluOuSH JtJ9if S6dlS WCAC CpOi V ed by the captains of the sealing fleet as having been killed during the seas on, the sex of only 26,341 was given. Many of the captains ignored this point altogether. Of this number, however as many as 11,7O5 were females and 14,636 were males, and the collector had to base his favorable opinion on these very imperfect returns.
 At the beginning of the season it was generally feared that the hunters would be seriously handicapped by the new regulations forbidding the use of firearms and prescribing the use of spears in taking the seal. But, unfor- tunately for the seal, the fear has been overcome. On account of it the vessels went on their voyages with a larger proportion of Indian hunters on board than the year before, because the In- dians were known to be more expert in the use of the spear than the whites. But before the end of the season the white hunters had become fully as skill full as the Indians.
 All the Canadian sealers were vessels of very small tonnage, the largest, the Favorite, registering 1S0 tons, and the smallest, the Annie c. Moore, only thir- teen tons. The Favorite got 1,S46 seals and the Annie c. Moore 2,256. The Triumph, of 9S tons, secured the biggest catch-4,560. The average tonnage was 66, and the average crew about 24.
 Most of the seals were caught off the Japanese coast-4S, ,993 against 29,206 the year before. The British Columbia coast catch was less than half of what it was in 1893. The report states that in Behring Sea the catch was made outside the sixty-mile protected zone, operations being carried on from the list of August to the middle of Septem- Der.
 On the Japanese coast sealing com rnenced at about latitude 36 degrees, and continued north. There were none of the Interruptions usual of late years experienced by those who operated in territory adjacent to Russian waters, the vessels all keeping well outside the thirtymile zone, mainly operating about 100 miles southeast of Copper Is land On the British Columbia coast sealing commenced at about latitude S7 degrees, thence proceeding northward. The fleet returned to port early in May, the close season being then on and at the end of July those of the ships hav- ing the requisite crews Of spearsmen set off for Behring Sea to try their luck under the new regulations.
 Considering everything, those who were in position to make this experi- ment with any hope of fair reward did very we'll but, taking the whole fleet, 1t is claimed that the season has been barren of profit or advantage, except that of the orews, who were enabled to make fair wages. Of the total fifty nine vessels operating, only thirty-two went into the sea.