PAST AND FUTURE OF THE FUR SEAL. 365 



mothers whose death involves that of their unborn offspring; and that the period of 

 gestation being nearly twelve months, a mother killed in Bering Sea means that three 

 seal lives may pay the penalty. 



It is equally important to the maintenance of this theory that there be an elimi- 

 nation of the fact that during the four seasons, ending with the past one of 1893, there 

 were taken on the Pribilof Islands only a total of 50,000 skins of young males, while 

 during that same period there were actually marketed by Ihe sealers over 200,000 

 skins, which represented only about half the injury done the seal herds, an injury 

 falling heaviest upon the producing class, the females. For four years there has been 

 practically a closed time on these islands, and pelagic sealing has had full swing in 

 the North Pacific. The rookeries have not improved under these conditions, and 

 until the records of the real cause of destruction stand impeached it is idle to offer 

 obscure and improbable explanations for the present condition of seal life. 



It has only been profitable to follow this question of the cause of the decadence 

 to indicate what might be expected from pelagic sealing. Whenever and to whatever 

 extent carried on, its deadly effects are certain and continuous, the amount of injury 

 being limited only by the magnitude of the enterprise. Improprieties on land can be 

 guarded against, but the disastrous consequences of pelagic sealing are inherent to 

 the business and are beyond man's control. They can be lessened, but only through 

 the curtailment of the number of seals taken. The injurious effect upon the herd, 

 while proportionately less, remains a constant factor. 



In following the career of an animal possessing such capacity for self-perpetuation 

 and ready adaptability to the uses of man, the student of natural history or of eco- 

 nomics is struck by the wanton and needless destruction which pursues it wherever 

 found. As to its future he turns, for what comfort he may be able to extract,- to the 

 decision of that court of recent if not last resort — the Paris tribunal of arbitration. 



The Paris tribunal of arbitration. — The causes which led to the arbitration are 

 known to all. For some years the Alaskan fur-seal, when on its migration route, 

 had been the eagerly sought quarry of the pelagic hunters. This route, which by 

 reason of its vast extent and proximity to inhabited shores makes this herd especially 

 vulnerable to attack, extends from the Pribilof Islands southward through the passes 

 of the Aleutian chain, expands in the broad Pacific, but ultimately brings the seals in 

 more compact masses to the North American coast, and thence along its shores, back 

 through the passes, to the Pribilof Islands again. Realizing the peril of the rook- 

 eries, the Government of the United States attempted to partially protect them by 

 seizing sealing schooners in Bering Sea. Each year it was thought that at least so 

 far as these waters were concerned the danger would cease, but each year it increased 

 as the vessels multiplied and the skill and knowledge of the sealers became greater 

 and was ultimately extended to the Asiatic herd which frequents the Russian or Com- 

 mander Islands. The continued seizing of schooners by the United States met with 

 remonstrances on the part of Canada and England, and finally, after much irritation 

 and heat, became the subject of diplomatic negotiations, the peaceful outcome of 

 which was the Paris tribunal of arbitration. 



Three duties were intrusted to the tribunal of arbitration : It was to settle cer- 

 tain jurisdictional questions, to decide the question of property rights, and in the 

 event of the matter being left in such shape that the concurrence of Great Britain 



