364 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



through excessive killing on land take so long to manifest itself ? Certainly the evils 

 of indiscrimination is not inherent in land killing; on the contrary, selection can be 

 exercised at the rookeries as readily as it can be at the abattoir, and there is no more 

 necessity for molesting the females than there would be for a farmer to ship all of his 

 herd to Kansas City and have the selection of the killable males made at the stock 

 yards. The briefest recital of the facts of seal life will make this plain. 



The facts of seal life. — The northern fur seals, unlike their southern relatives, are 

 forced each year by Arctic cold and the necessity for food to leave their homes on the 

 approach of winter and to seek the southern waters, and the a.bundant fish supply along 

 the continental shores. The migration routes of the Alaskan and Asiatic herds do 

 not coalesce, nor do the seals intermingle. Late in April or early in May, depending 

 upon the character of the season, the breeding males, bulls, or " seecatchie," first 

 return to their resorts from this migration. About a month later the mature females 

 or "matkie" begin to seek the breeding-grounds, and between the time of arrival of 

 these two classes the young males or " hollustchikie" are swimming in the water near 

 the rookery fronts or hauling out upon the hauling-grounds some distance away from 

 the areas occupied by the mature seals. The young males are not permitted to gather 

 upon the breeding-grounds until, by reason of age and strength, they are able to 

 maintain a position there. 



Each old bull when he arrives in the spring selects and maintains, often by des- 

 perate combat, a little area upon which he hopes to establish his household. The male 

 weighs four or five times as much as his consort, and, as is usually the case where the 

 male preponderates in size, they are extremely polygamous. Their vitality and viril- 

 ity is almost beyond belief. For eighty or ninety days, while they are making secure 

 their position, and while guarding and presiding over their families, or ; ' harems," 

 they are debarred from both food and water. When the season of propagation is 

 past they again betake themselves to the sea, and the breeding-grounds are given up 

 to the intermingling of young males, females, and pups, but during that eighty or 

 ninety days the immature males from one to five years of age have been compelled to 

 consort together upon the hauling-grounds, and thus there is given an opportunity 

 without in any way interfering with the course of events upon the breeding-grounds, 

 to drive away, select, and slaughter such of these young males as will furnish desirable 

 pelts. These are the only skins shipped from the islands. 



Can anyone successfully maintain that in the case of polygamous animals the 

 taking of the surplus male life and reserving the females can destroy the herd? If 

 this can be demonstrated, then our stock-raisers are at fault, and the evidence derived 

 from Russian management goes for naught. 



The facts of pelagic sealing. — Before the breath of life can be breathed into this 

 theory of decadence through excessive killing on the islands there must be removed from 

 the record books certain well-established facts concerning pelagic sealing. It will be 

 necessary to dispose of the fact that while in 1878 there was but 1 vessel engaged in 

 pelagic sealing, the number steadily increased until in 1892 there were 122 to follow on 

 the migration tracks of the herds, to harry them eight months out of the twelve, and, if 

 permitted, to accompany them to and even upon their ehosen resorts. There must also 

 be a .successful refutation of the fact that there is a loss of at least 10 per cent inherent in 

 the methods of taking seals at sea; that pelagic sealing strikes at the very life of the 

 rookeries, by killing 75 or 80 per cent of the females, more than half of which are 





