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- 74 VICTORIA ILL USTRA TED.
the same is true should the line of steamships between Canada and Australia be inaugurated. The facilities for docking the largest steamers
afloat, and for handling their cargoes at R. P. Rithet & Co's docks, are unequalled on the Coast. The average depth of water in the basin
at dead low springs is twenty-eight feet.
THE SEALING INDUSTRY.
The importance of the sealing industry of Victoria is so great and so well recognized that it does not require extended notice in these
pages. It is less than twenty-five years since the sealing industry attained any prominence, prior to which time the whole business was in
the hands of the West Coast and Queen Charlotte Island Indians. In 1886 the small schooner Kate went sealing and trading as the venture
of a company of Victorians, but from all accounts she did not accomplish much. However, from this period the business began to amount
to something, prominent among those who were interested in those days being Captains J. D. Warren, W. Spring, A. Laing and J. D. MacKay.
Until 1880, how-ever, the Victoria fleet only included at the most a half dozen vessels, none of them visiting Behring Sea. In 1883 the
Victoria Fleet was made up of nine vessels, but until 1884 none of them entered Behring Sea, keeping outside the three-mile limit. In
the succeeding years the interest attracted much more attention, additional vessels were built, and schooners and hunters were brought
along from Nova Scotia. Since 1886 the American official worriments have been continually practised, on which account the existing modus
vivendi has been entered into, and the Sealing Commission appointed. Probably there is no man in the Province better posted with respect
to this entire business than the present able and courteous Collector of Customs, Mr. A. R. Milne, of Victoria, and to him thanks are due
for information and statistics. In 1887 the Victoria sealing fleet numbered twenty-one vessels, of which five were seized by the notorious
cutter, the Richard Rush. Among the seizures that year was that of the W. P. Sayward, the case of which is now before the United States
Supreme Court. In 1888 the total catch of the Victoria sealers amounted to 24,483 skins, twenty-two vessels having cleared for Behring Sea
from this port. There were engaged in sealing in 1889 twenty-two Victoria vessels, and ten foreign craft, including one carrying the
German flag. The Victoria vessels had a value of $200,000, and employed close on 650 men. The catch amounted as follows : Spring, 6,917 ;
Sand Point, 8,012 ; Behring Sea, 20,381 ; total, 35,310. In 1890 twenty-nine Canadian vessels, valued with their outfits at
$265,985, and employing 678 men, comprised the sealing fleet. They returned, having made catches as follows : Coast, 4,650 ;
Sand Point, 16,732 ; Behring Sea, 18,165 ; total, 39,547 skins. Six foreign schooners, which. had taken 4,148 skins, disposed of them
to Victoria merchants, who thus handled 43,695 seal skins that sea-son. In 1891 the number of vessels which went out from this port was
much larger, being forty all told, of a value, with their out-fits, of $448,450, and carrying 374 boats and canoes, with 660 white men
and 368 Indians. The catch was 50,417 skins, including 4,127 Coast catch, 17,443 Sand Point, and Behring Sea 28,768. This, it will be at
once apparent, is a very small catch, considering the number of schooners and men employed, and is attributable to the repressive measures
adopted by the British and United States Governments. The catch per vessel was, thus, in 1890, equal to 1,363 skins per vessel, while for
1891 it reached only 1,050.
THE following statement
shows the number of letters,
post cards and newspapers, etc., posted at Victoria during one week in the undermentioned years :
Year. Letters. Post Cards. Transients. Books, Papers,Etc.
1882 6,024 204 469
1883 7,490 266 889
1884 10,824 710 1,228
1885 12,963 499 979
1886 14,916 626 2,219
1887 16,007 600 1,096
1888 12,319 1,230 1,559
1889 13,806 784 1,304
1890 14,929 1,120 1,418
1891 19,184 1,209 2,838
ST. ANDREW'S (R. C.) CATHEDRAL.
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