Abstract
FEW commercial industries command a more varied or more widely spread series of interests than does the sealing trade of the North Pacific. In addition to the great biological interest attaching to the seal-herds, we have, first of all, a considerable number of Aleuts dwelling on the islands to drive, kill, and skin the seals, and who subsist to a certain extent on seal-flesh. Then there is the revenue drawn by the American and Russian Governments for the right of sealing on their respective islands, as well as the Customs dues levied by the former on the dressed seal-skins when re-imported into their territory. Not to mention the transport of the raw hides, the dressing of the latter and their conversion into commercial sealskin forms a very important industry in London, which employs a large number of hands. There are, moreover, the vessels and their crews, which have of late years been engaged in pelagic sealing; a large proportion of which sailed from Canadian ports. Finally, there is the manufacture of the finished seal-skin into garments, and the retail sale of the latter.
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L., R. The Fur-Seal Herds of the North Pacific. Nature 60, 354–356 (1899). https://doi.org/10.1038/060354b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/060354b0