Universities contend in extending over the face of England the blessings they are so well calculated to convey.

From the small beginning of the Cambridge Extension Scheme in 1873, with courses given in three centres only, giant strides have been made. During the session 1889-90, according to the statements in the report for 1890, lectures and classes have been given in 67 populous centres. The percentage of persons attending the lectures who have sent up weekly papers is 217, and of those examined at the end of the course 155, a large advance on all former results. The average attendance at the lectures has been 11,201, at the classes 5:314; the average number of weekly papers has been 2,433, and the number examined 1,734.

The London Society in its first year gave 7 courses attended by 139 persons. In its thirteenth year, 1889, the courses have increased to 100, and the persons attending them to 10,881. The weekly papers which were not given till 1881, and then numbered 610, now number 1899, and the number of certificates awarded amounts to 1,329.

The movement at Oxford has also greatly increased: 109 courses were delivered under the supervision of the University in 82 towns by 16 lecturers. Examinations were held at the conclusion of 71 courses, and certificates have been awarded to nearly 1,100 students. The courses were attended by 1,435 students, and the average period of study covered by each course was rather more than 9 weeks. A summer meeting is to be held for the third time this year in Oxford, where from August 2 to August 12 short courses of lectures and a number of evening lectures will be delivered. These will be followed by more detailed study, private tuition, and further lectures on "Art,” "The Method of Teaching," "Botany," "Physiology," &c.

The large advance made this year is due to the efforts of all the Universities to extend the work in various parts of the country. The formation of at least five of the new Cambridge Extension centres is due to the Gilchrist People's Lectures. This method of short courses of these lectures has led to the foundation of many centres, which have been taken charge of by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. These lectures are purely preparatory to University Extension Lectures.

The two new district associations, the South-Eastern and Yorkshire Association for the Extension of University Teaching, have been formed in addition to the South-Eastern Counties and the Northern Associations constituted in 1887. These consist of all the centres (whether connected with Cambridge or Oxford) who wish to join throughout the district covered by the association, each centre sending its dele

gates to the annual meeting held in the spring, when by friendly conference an attempt is made to group the centres in such a way as best to meet their several needs. The Yorkshire Association, which was formed at a meeting in York on April 19 of the present year, has for its chief objects—(1) The organisation and extension of University teaching in Yorkshire and the North-East of England. (2) The suggestion of subjects and lectures, and the grouping of centres for lectures. (3) The organisation of lectures and systematic work in vacation time. (4) The formation of a students' library and the lending of books. generally.

(5) The promotion of higher education

An association with these objects has only need of a strong executive to exercise a great and important influence in the district.

one.

This account of University Extension is of necessity incomplete, but it will serve to show what has been already done in this direction. The only difficulty in the way of its more rapid advance is a financial The average cost of a course, including local expenses, is £65 or £70. This sum cannot be raised by the sale of tickets alone if it is to benefit the classes who now attend these courses. If some solution of the financial difficulty could be found, there is every reason to believe that the movement would spread into towns and districts where it is impossible to raise a large subscription fund.

The total cost of all the University and local expenses roughly amounts to ros. per pupil for the course. This is not the fee charged, for the cost is partly defrayed by subscriptions; but the 10s. is the total cost, and includes everything-teaching, rent of rooms, advertising, and all other expenses. So complete a system was never offered at so low a cost. Surely all this is work well worthy of being done, well worthy of the Universities. It is not, therefore, unreasonable to look outside the work for help, to lay the foundations of a large and comprehensive scheme of national higher education on a secure basis. The opportunity is one which might well be embraced by Government. In whatever way the further extension of this movement may come, the system stands to-day as a most interesting example of a natural and spontaneous growth; the outcome, on the one hand, of an urgent demand for higher teaching in the country, and on the other, of a deeper sense in the Universities of the responsibilities of their unique position, and a growing sympathy with the educational needs of the time.

HAMLET E. CLARK.

THE FUR-SEAL FISHERIES

OF ALASKA.

NDER the above title the United States Government have

UN

recently issued the report of a committee appointed to "investigate the fur-seal fisheries of Alaska . . . . and to fully investigate and report upon the nature and extent of such rights and interests of the United States in the fur-seals and other fisheries in the Bering's Sea in Alaska; and whether to any extent the same have been violated, and by whom ; and what, if any, legislation is necessary for the better protection and preservation of the same."

The report, which was ordered to be printed January 29, 1889, is of the usually exhaustive nature of those presented to the House of Representatives, and contains a vast amount of information on a subject which is not only of great importance both to the United States and to this country, as affecting a very lucrative branch of the fur trade in London, but as bearing upon a question which has recently assumed a very serious aspect owing to the regrettable differences which have arisen between these two great English-speaking nations, as to their respective rights in the waters frequented by the fur-seals at the only season when their pursuit is practicable.

The subject, which is a very wide one, has many aspects, and as it cannot be fully understood without some knowledge of the origin of the "fishery," the restrictions under which it has hitherto been prosecuted, and of the habits of the seals themselves, I trust you will allow me, as briefly as possible, to furnish your readers with such information as I am able on each of these subjects.

Stretching far away from the westernmost point of the Alaska Peninsula, still to the westward for some twenty-six degrees of longitude, extends the chain of islands known as the Aleutian Islands, the last of the group, Attoo by name, in long. 173° E., seeming almost to meet the Russian group of the Commander Islands in long. 167°E., thus enclosing a vast extent of ocean, the only outlet from which to the north is the narrow strait named, like the sea which it closes, after that intrepid navigator Bering; beyond this to the north the

Arctic ice soon blocks further progress.

The chief passage into this

almost land-locked sea from the American side is between the islands of Oonalaska and Oonimak, known as the Oonimak Pass, and 192 miles W.N.W. lies the little group known as the Pribylov, or Seal Islands, consisting of the main islands of St. George and St. Paul, the former with a superficial area of thirty-three, and the latter of twenty-seven square miles, and these are attended by their satellites Otter and Walrus Islands. The larger islands form the summer home and nursery of countless numbers of fur-seals, Otaria (Callorhinus) ursina, whose skins yield the fur known as seal skin, so justly prized for its beauty, in which respect it is only exceeded by the still more costly sea otter.

The discovery of these islands was due to the enterprise of the Russian fur hunters, for although there is an Aluet tradition that they were known to and visited by these people long before Russians landed there, it is certain that the latter had to re-discover them for themselves, and that until the year 1786 they were practically unknown. Elliott' says that, having exhausted the sea otter fishing on their own coast, and observing that the fur-seals passed through the passages between the islands of the Aleutian chain northward in spring, and again southward towards the Pacific Ocean in autumn, the hunters determined to find the summer resort of these animals. At first they were unsuccessful, but on the third voyage, after cruising in the immediate vicinity of one of the islands for three weeks in this sea of fog and storm, the mist lifted, and Gehrman Pribylov (son of one of the survivors of Bering's ill-fated vessel) sighted land, and eventually in a thick fog made the shore, naming the newlydiscovered island St. George, after the vessel which he commanded. This was in the month of July in the year 1786.

Finding no harbour in which to take refuge the "St. George" returned to winter at the Aleutian islands. In the following summer, on June 29, 1787, the hunters who had remained behind sighted an island to the northward, and this being the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul they at once named it after these saints. Time, however, has resulted in the final adoption of the latter name only, and the second island is universally known as St. Paul's.

Such in a few words is the history Mr. Elliott gives of the discovery of these islands. Let us see what use the Russians made of their valuable acquisition. Pribylov and his companions finding that the islands abounded with fur-seals, the object of their search,

A Monograph of the Seal Islands of Alaska, by H. W. Elliott. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1882.

but that they were otherwise uninhabited, imported natives from Oonalaska to do the work of killing and skinning, and the descendants of these people still continue-but under circumstances greatly changed for the better-to fulfil the same duties. Of course there was a rush to secure a share of the seals, and so regardless of consequences were the unrestrained operations of the rival traders, that the Russian Government soon took the alarm, and in 1799 the islands, with the whole territory of Alaska, were handed over to the control of the Russian America Company, under whose management they remained for sixty-seven years.

At first the Russian company appear to have conducted the sealing almost as wastefully as had been done previously to their coming into possession of the islands, and Mr. Elliott states that in 1803, 800,000 seal skins had accumulated, and that as it was impossible to make advantageous sale of so many skins "in this great number, so many were spoiled that it became necessary to cut or throw into the sea 700,000 pelts." Reliable statistics are not to be had, but "in the first thirty years (according to Veniaminov's best understanding) there were taken 'more than two and a half millions of seal skins'; then in the next twenty-one years, up to 1838, they took 578,924. During the last taking, from 1817 to 1838, the skins were worth on an average "no more than thirty rubles each ($6 apiece)."

During the period the company was under the management of Alexander Baranov it continued to prosper, but shortly after the death of this man, who was described as cruel and unscrupulous in the extreme, its affairs went from bad to worse, till July 1867, when Alaska was purchased by the United States, and a new era soon dawned upon the history of the Pribylov Islands.

The American flag was hoisted on the islands in April, 1868 ; but it was not till 1871 that the lease to the Alaska Commercial Company for a period of twenty years from May 1, 1870, came fully into operation, and the interregnum tells a sad tale of wastefulness. Mr. Elliott gives the following returns of seals killed about this time. In 1867 were taken some 48,000 skins; but in 1868, the islands being open to all comers, 242,000 seals were slaughtered; the next year, 1869, only 87,000 could be procured; these fell off in 1870 to 9,965. In 1871 the Alaska Company killed 63,000, and in 1872, 99,000, and about the latter number has been the return ever since.

Before speaking of the enlightened policy pursued by the United States Government, and the remarkable results which have followed their judicious management of the valuable property which had come