MARINE MAMMALS — KELLOGG 305 



show that 1,450 fur seals were taken in 1874, "great numbers" in 1877 

 (H. T. Allen, 1920, p. 108), and 170 in 1906 (Matthews, 1929, p. 255). 

 These catches seem to have resulted in the final destructi(^n of the 

 South Georgia fur seal herd, although two were seen on Willis Island 

 in 1927 (Matthews, 1929, p. 255). 



So merciless was the slaughter of fur seals on the Falkland Island 

 rookeries by a constantly increasing number of vessels and so keen was 

 the race to reach unexploited beaches that British and American 

 sealers were continually searching for new sealing grounds. 



Sealers naturally were reticent regarding their findings, and in some 

 instances several years elapsed before the news of their discoveries 

 leaked out. Such seems to be the case with the South Shetland 

 rookeries, located about 400 miles southeast of Cape Horn. Uncon- 

 firmed reports have circulated for nearly a century that American 

 sealers had reached the South Shetland rookeries by 1812 (Caiman, 

 1937, p. 17G). Existing records do show that American and British 

 sealers were slaughtering fur seals on these islands at least as early 

 as 1819 (Ragged Island, Fanning, 1924, p. 304; Balch, 19U9, pp. 474, 

 477; Bruce, 1920, p. 38). 



To Col. Lawrence Martin, whose critical analysis of documentary 

 data has contributed so much to the knowledge of the areas south of 

 Cape Horn, I am indebted for the following information on the 

 southern fur seal fishery in the vicinity of the South Shetland Islands. 

 Shore crews from something like 50 sealing vessels, about equally 

 divided between American and English registry, were killing fur seals 

 on these rookeries during the Antarctic seasons 1820-21 and 1821-22. 

 Sixteen of the American sealing vessels are known to have transported 

 160,000 fur seal skins to New York and New England in 1821. Nine 

 English sealing vessels are reported to have shipped 165,000 fur seal 

 skins to England. Thus the total catch for the Antarctic season 

 1820-21 could hardly have been less than half a million fur seals. 



So ruthless was the exploitation of these fur seal rookeries, that by 

 1829 most of the financial backers of this sealing business considered 

 the risks too hazardous to warrant voyages to the South Shetlands. 

 At that time fur seals had been almost exterminated on all the acces- 

 sible rookeries and the sealers were searching for new sealing grounds. 

 Nevertheless, sealing continued with indifferent success for many years. 



Forty years later (1871-72) sealers again came to the South Shet- 

 land Islands and in the ensuing 10 years killed off more than 90,000 fur 

 seals there and on the rookeries east of Cape Horn (Clark, 1887, 

 p. 402) . The few remaining survivors of the Shetland Island rookeries 

 seem to have been exterminated by a Vancouver sealer in 1905-06 

 (Anonymous, in Pacific Fisherman, vol. 4, No. 5, p. 20; No. 7, p. 19, 

 1906). 



