EFFECT OF MODUS VIVENDI. 147 



In addition to this total there are 95,000 skins which have been taken, but for 

 which the definite locality of capture has not been determined, making a grand total 

 of 988,047 animals, or approximately 1,000,000 seals, known to have been killed at sea 

 from the combined Kussian and American herds. 



THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE SEALS KILLED BUT LOST. 



The figures just given include only animals actually secured and whose skins were 

 brought to market. No attempt has been made to form any estimate of the number 

 of animals which escaped to die of their wounds, or of those killed outright, whose 

 bodies sank before they could be secured. The loss arising from these sources is 

 considerable even at the present time, where firearms are used, and in the early days 

 of their use it must have been very great. 



EARLY SEALING CONFINED TO PRIBILOF HERD. 



Until the year 1891 all pelagic sealing was confined to the Pribilof herd, and prior 

 to the year 1883 all the seals were taken off the Northwest coast. After 1883 sealing 

 in Bering Sea was added. In 1891 a modus vivendi was declared on June 15, designed 

 to close Bering Sea. 1 This measure was renewed in the two succeeding years, pending 

 the results of the Arbitration Tribunal. It may be remarked in this connection that 

 the importance of this modus vivendi of 1891-1893, in its relation to the herd, was not 

 great. Its promulgation in 1891 was too late to make it effective, as the fact that the 

 herd lost 19,000 more seals at sea in that year than in 1890 abundantly shows. In 1892 

 it merely checked the increase of the catch, leaving it still 6,000 more than it was 

 before the measure was put into effect. In 1893, when the catch fell to 30,000, which 

 was but 10,000 less than the catch of 1890, the herd derived some benefit. Of course, 

 if we take into account what the herd might have lost through the increase of the 

 catch in this period, the benefit to the herd was greater. But it was at best only a 

 postponement of the loss, as in 1894 the catch rose immediately to 61,000 double that 

 of 1893 and was in 1895 still 16,000 greater than the catch of 1890 ; its decline since 

 that time has been due to the diminishing herd. 



THE SUSPENSION OF LAND KILLING. 



On the other hand the suspension of killing on laud only released young males to 

 grow up which are now, as idle and superfluous bulls, a menace to the rookeries. In 

 the case of the pelagic sealers the measure only postponed the time of taking the seals, 

 as the females which escape in one season are still available the next, while on land 

 the young males released were irrevocably lost to the Government and the lessees, 

 because before normal conditions were resumed they had taken on the wig of the half 

 bull, and their skins became of no value. The suspension of land and sea killing, 

 therefore, during the modus vivendi, was at best of very doubtful value. 



MODUS VIVENDI TRANSFERRED SEALING TO ASIATIC SIDE. 



The modus vivendi, however, had this effect: It influenced a certain number of 

 sealing vessels to try their luck on the Asiatic side of the Pacific Ocean. These, in 



1 See footnote to page 144 of this volume. 



