12 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



"What is the cause of the death of so many fur-seal pups?" has been 

 asked many times during the past five years' discussion of the seal 

 question, and many conflicting; answers have been given. I tliinTv the 

 following, under the circumstftuces, is an answer that can not be contra- 

 dicted. The pelagic sealing season opened in Bering Sea on August 1, 

 1894, in accordance with the internati(»nal regulations made possible by 

 the Bering Sea Tribunal, under which ])elagic sealers are licensed to 

 kill seals, with spears, outside of the GO mile zone around the S6al ishmds, 

 and immediately we see the result of their work in the thousands of 

 pups starved to death after their mothers had been killed at sea by the 

 men whose right to kill them, at certain seasons, has been established 

 and acknowledged by the very tribunal that was created for the i)urpose 

 of preventing the destruction of the fur-seal herd. 



One of the most horrible and harrowing sights imaginable is that of 

 being surrounded on the bleak and inhosi)itable shores of the Pribilof 

 Islands by thousands of dead and dying pup seals whose death has been 

 the result of slow starvation, and whose hungry cries and almost human 

 appeals for food and life must be made in vain, for, no matter how willing 

 and anxious one may be to render assistance, one feels it is beyond 

 human power to arrest the gnawing of hunger in an animal who is 

 totally dependent for sustenance on a mother who was killed a month 

 ago by pelagic sealers ! 



Those who once witnessed such a sight never can forget it, and occa- 

 sionally I receive letters from some of them which run somewliat like 

 the following: 



Do tell me what is to be doue with the few remaining seals. * * * jf these 

 steps had been taken last year, even, there might have been enongh left to tell the 

 tale, but as it is I can not but feel what a pitiable sight the rookeries will present 

 next year. It was discouraging enough last spring when I compared the rookeries 

 with what 1 had seen just tlie year before. My heart bled for the poor starving pups 

 so much, the last stroll I took on the rookeries, that I could never go back. I don't 

 see how the judge could stand to see 10,000 dead ones. It would have broken my 

 heart I know. The morning we came into Dutch Harbor on our voyage down we 

 saw three sealing vessels sailing out toward the 60-miles limit. Oh, what a farce, 

 what a snare and delusion that 60 mile limit was! How could anyone who had 

 ever been to the seal islands and noted the habits of the feeding cows ever recom- 

 mend such a murderous proposition? Even I knew better than that. * * * But 

 13,000 cows taken staggered me. I had expected about 5,000 or 6,000, and even cal- 

 culated the terrible consequence upon the rookeries, but 13,000! that was terrible, 

 terrible ! 



The writer of that letter is the wife of the Treasury agent, an Amer- 

 ican lady of Christian education, culture, and refinement, who natu- 

 rally felt horrified at the sight she saw on the rookeries, and, like the 

 tender and merciful woman she is, she denounces the system, regula- 

 tion, custom, or whatever else it may be called, which makes such suf- 

 fering possible. 



One instance in this connection worth recording is that of a pelagic 



sealer whose heart was touched by the pitiful cries of an orphan pup, 



and the story is told by an eyewitness under oath : 



Of the seals that wore caught off the coast fully 90 out of every 100 had young 

 pups in them. The boats would bring the seals on board the vessel, and we would 

 take the young pups out and skin them. If the pup is good and a nice one, we 

 would skin it and keep it for ourselves. I had eight such skins myself. Four out 

 of five, if caught in May or June, would be alive when we cut them out of their 

 mothers. One of them we kept for pretty near three weeks alive on deck by feed- 

 ing it on condensed milk. One of the men finally killed it becau.se it cried so piti- 

 fully. (Affidavit of Alfred Dardean.) 



The reverse side of the question is that held by the average pelagic 

 sealer, who kills the mother seal and cuts out her unborn young or 

 leaves the born young to slowly starve to death on the rookeries. 



