The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-08-03
EXTINCTION OF SEALS.
Lessees Of the Rookeries on Priby-
-' loft Islands ,.s~--
WILLING TO STOP THE KILLING.
Nearly All the Animals Caught by
Pelagic Sealers Are Females and
Pups-What the Skins Sell For in


London. f-~~e..
London, Aug. g. Herman Llebes,
president of A. II. Liebes, & Co., of San
Francisco, which firm, with David
Ogden Mills, the New York banker, and
Lloyd Tovis, president of the Wells
Fargo Co.'s express system, compose
the North American Commercial COM
pany, lessee from the United States
government of the Pribyloff Islands
seal rookeries, has addressed letter to
the Times, in which he says:
Il and my colleagues of the North
American Commercial company entire
ly digclaim any desire for measures
made in the interests of one national
ity and against the interests of the
other and we do not and never have
suggested that the English govern
ment should surrender the exercise Of
lucrative industry without receiving
an equivalent, merely in order to in
crease our actual and prospective prof
it's Pelagic sealing Is open to our
selves and to the whole world, and
speaking for myself and my colleague,
l should be perfectly willing to con-
cur In any reasonable arrangement
with our own and also with the British
government with view to (either en-
tirely or at any rate for given num-
Der of years. discontinuing the killing
of seals upon the islands in question,
as also all pelagic scaling.
II am in position to prove conclu-
slvely that of the seals caught by the
pelagic sealers at least so per cent are
females and the remaining 20 per cent.
are mostly pups, in which the sex is
not distinguishable after the skins are
removed from the body. AS I/haye
said, the skins all come to London to be
dressed, and there Is not the slightest
difficulty in determining the sex of the
adult seal from the skins. An inspection
of them would convince all who saw
them. The males are much more
active than the females, who are all
heavily encountered and float at the
top of the water, and are unable to
escape SO readily as the males.
''Sir Louis II. Davies. Canadian min
lister of marine fisheries. recently made
a statement to representative Of
news agency to the effect that pelagic
sealing employs a large number Of
white people and Indians, and not less
than 5000 Canadians are dependent
upon the industry Where, may l ask,
are the 5000 Canadians to whom Sir
L. H. Davies alludes as being depend
ent on the industry, unless they be the
shareholders of the companies owning
the various vessels.
During the last seven years our
company (the so-called great monopo-
lists have killed only about $4,000 seals
per annum, and the average price re-
ceived for the skins in London was
certainly under E5 per skin, and In
asmuch as the skins cost US over 60
each. to say nothing Of our invested
capital. you will see the monopoly is
not very large, and had we invested
our money in government bonds we
should have done better.
"A great deal has been said about
the Americans not paying compensa-
ton to the owners Of the vessels seized
from 1886 to 1890, list of which vessels
is set forth in the award The Partisan
arbitrator by their award did not as
sess any damages, but left that mat
ter open for further negotiations be-
tween the two governments. The own
ers of the vessels seized were promptly
asked to send in their claims. and did
so. Every effort is being made by the
commission appointed for the purpose
for assessing compensation in British
Columbia, consisting of the chief JUS
tice of Canada and judge of the
United States, ard who are now sitting
there, to come to conclusion upon the
point. Whatever compensation Is
awarded will be promptly paid.
Surely there is nothing unreason-
able In asking that conference be
held to consider whether the rsgula-
lions provided by the Paris award are
sufficient to protect the seal from total
extinction or whether at any rate some
measures cannot be taken to preserve
the lives of the female seals and to
avert the amount Of destruction by the
slow process of starvation of so many
thousands of pups. Upon those who
oppose so reasonable a request must
rest the responsibility of the ultimate
determination of the seal from the Pa
ciic ocean by the barbarous process
of killing the mothers and starving
their young"