310 THE WEALTH OF THE SEA 



1911 by an international agreement between Great 

 Britain, Japan, Russia, and the United States. 

 According to the present practice, only the surplus 

 young male seals are killed for fur, and the older 

 bulls and the females are carefully protected. By this 

 method the number of seals has been increased from 

 132,000 in 1910 to more than 700,000 at present. 

 During this period about sixty-five million dollars' 

 worth of pelts has been taken. As the seal herd 

 grows in size, more and more seals may be killed. 

 Thus protection has not only proved to be the means 

 of saving the seals, but it has also been very 

 profitable. 



A century ago fur-seals were found in great num- 

 bers on nearly all the islands on the west coast of 

 South America, from Cape Horn to the Equator. 

 Many were also found on the South Shetlands, the 

 Falkland group, the South Georgia Islands, and the 

 Sandwich group. Fur-seals were also eagerly hunted 

 on Kerguelen Land, the Aucklands, the Antipodes, 

 the Crozet group, and other islands in this vicinity. 



Everywhere the slaughter was so indiscriminate 

 and reckless that the seals were rapidly exterminated. 

 Now only a few seals are to be found in the Southern 

 Hemisphere. The only important herd is the one on 

 Lobos Island in the mouth of the La Plata River, 

 which has been protected for a number of years by 

 Uruguay. 



In addition to the rookeries on the Pribilof Islands, 

 there are two other important breeding grounds in 

 the Northern Hemisphere. Japan has a small herd of 

 about twenty thousand seals on Robben Island, and 



