394 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



found only in one small herd, which hauls out in the spring and fall 

 on the islets off Port Heiden, on the Alaska Peninsula. 



It is shocking to contemplate the indifference with vhich the civ- 

 ilized world has witnessed, nay, not only witnessed but encouraged the 

 slaughter, almost to the point of extinction, of highly organized animals 

 evidencing traits of affection and devotion which would do honor to 

 human beings. Everywhere, in every sea, it is the same story, destroy ! 

 destroy ! destroy ! What more pathetic sight in the whole range of man's 

 ruthless destruction than the thousands of nursing fur seals starving 

 and dead on the shores of the Pacific islands as a result of the inhuman 

 butchery of their nurture-seeking mothers in the waters of Bering Sea 

 and the North Pacific. At the present rate of decrease the day is not 

 far distant when they will have become as extinct as the buffalo of the 

 American prairies. 



Pet it not be understood that our sympathy for the highly organized 

 creatures of the sea would withhold them from industrial use. The 

 slaughter of animals under proper safeguards, whether they be in 

 the seas or under domestic care, does not in itself constitute needless 

 cruelty, for the end of every individual, beast or human, is pathetic, 

 whether it result from sudden accident or through the waste of 

 years. When this slaughter is so conducted that it is conservative uti- 

 lization, with due care for the welfare and perpetuation of the species 

 as a whole, it is but the most intelligent application of nature's wisest 

 law of the survival of the fittest. The preservation which we would ex- 

 tend to these animals is largely for the purpose of their greater use. 

 We would surround them with such protection and take them only 

 under such conditions as would tend to increase their numbers and thus 

 make them of far greater value to the hardy fishermen whose industry 

 has won renown in all ages. It is hoped that the wide public interest 

 attracted to the preservation of our natural resources will result in pre- 

 venting the now imminent extermination of these species, whose zoologic 

 and philosophic worth far exceeds their economic value. 



It is beyond the limits of this paper to outline the proper direction 

 of the efforts to preserve these resources. But in view of the fact that 

 the fisheries on the high seas represent the greatest economic resource 

 which the nations of the world hold in common for their joint use, it 

 seems that there might be wisdom in a general treaty or international 

 union for their consideration. Already there are several treaties of 

 this nature with special international offices for the purpose of satis- 

 fying economic and other nonpolitical interests, such as the Universal 

 Postal Union, established in 1874, the Union for the Protection of 

 Industrial Property in 1883, and the Union for the Protection of 

 Works of Literature and Art in 1886. More closely allied to our 

 subject is the convention in behalf of the preservation of wild animals, 



