TABLE OK CONTENTS. 13 



CHAPTER XI. PELAGIC SEALING, OR KILLING AT SKA Continued. I'age. 



The shooting of the seals 144 



Loss resulting from shooting 145 



The spear least wasteful 145 



Northwest Coast sealiug 146 



Beriug Sea sealing 146 



Pelagic catch 146 



Does uot include seals killed, lint lost 147 



Early sealing confined to Pribilof herd 147 



Suspension of laud killing 147 



Modus vivendi transferred sealing to Asiatic side 147 



Decline of the catch 148 



Unfavorable weather not the cause 148 



Pelagic killing and land killing compared 148 



Statistics regarding land and sea killing 149 



The period from 1871-1882 149 



Growth of the catch 149 



Relation of gains and losses in the herd 149 



Period subsequent to 1882 150 



Expansion of pelagic ; decrease of laud sealing 150 



Cause of decline to be sought in breeding herd 150 



The beginning of the decline 151 



Early pelagic sealiug a mere check 151 



Irregular quota since 1890 151 



Pelagic sealing and the Commander herd 152 



Interrelation of pelagic and land catches 153 



CHAPTER XII. THE EFFECT OF PELAGIC SEALING: 



Pelagic sealing kills females 153 



Pelagic sealing and the sealing of the South Seas 153 



Methods of southern sealing 153 



"Indiscriminate" not "excessive'' 154 



The preponderance of females 154 



The sealing captains' record of sexes taken 154 



Customs-house examination by experts 155 



Contrast of sex returns 155 



The sex of salted skins easily determined 155 



Investigations of Alexander and Halkett 155 



Females more easily taken 156 



The capture of males not important 156 



Possibility of equilibrium 156 



Equilibrium a theoretical fact 157 



Death from old age 157 



A hypothetical case 157 



Possible abstraction of females 157 



Secondary loss of pups 158 



Pelagic catch still involves 1(5 per cent 158 



Pelagic catch must still fall to one-third before equilibrium 158 



The equilibrium could not be maintained 159 



Equilibrium exists only far below commercial ruin 159 



Destruction of unborn pups 160 



Females pregnant and nursing 160 



Pelagic sealing takes compound interest 160 



Destruction of nursing pups ? 160 



Pups dependent upon milk until December 160 



The absence of excrement 161 



The supposed nonfeeding of females 161 



