MARINE ANIMALS OF NORTHWEST COAST. 685 



instincts in num. even of the highest civilization. For unnumbered 

 centuries his subsistence depended upon his ability to kill, and his very 

 existence upon the power to restrain, by killing first, those who would 

 kill him. It is not to be expected that these instincts can be changed 

 or eliminated in a few generations. Nevertheless, the desire to kill 

 for the sake of killing has been modified in the more intelligent of 

 civilized men to a desire to kill for some definite purpose, such as the 

 accumulation of property, the protection of domestic animals, or the 

 elimination of vermin. 



We may hope that the more intelligent body of those who make 

 and enforce the laws may so restrain the less intelligent, who kill in 

 wantonness or for a trilling gain, as to defer the extinction of the 

 sea animals indefinitely. It is entirely possible, though up to the 

 present time effective measures of protection have, so far as inter- 

 national law would admit, been carried out solely for one animal — the 

 fur seal. Others, like the sea otter and salmon, have been legislated 

 for, but it is universally believed on the northwest coast that no 

 honest attempt to enforce this legislation has ever been made, and 

 certainly none has been efficient. The prospect would indeed be dark 

 if we could hope for nothing better than the conditions which have 

 heretofore obtained. 



But there is no reason why conditions should not improve, and the 

 writer believes that if the American public were fully aware of the 

 present state of things they would insist on a change; and if any 

 general appreciation of what the present destructiveness implies could 

 be brought about, the merest commercial self-interest would force a 

 reform in the absence of other motives. 



The marine animals which may be considered in this connection are 

 as follows: 



The sea elephant, Macrorhinus angustiroslris; 



The walrus, Rosmarus obesus; 



The sea lion, Eumetopias stelleri; 



The lesser sea lion, Zalophus caMfornianus; 



The fur seal, Callotaria ursina; 



The hair or harbor seal, Phoca largha; 



The ringed seal, Phoca fcetida; 



The harp seal, Phoca grcenlandica; 



The saddleback seal, Histriophoca fasciata; 



The bearded seal, Erignathus barbatus; 



The sea otter, Enhydris marina. 



The fur seal has been the subject of so much writing and has excited 

 so much popular interest from its commercial value and other causes 

 that it will not be further referred to in this discussion, except to say 

 that there is no question in the mind of anyone qualified to judge that 

 if the destructive pelagic sealing were stopped, the seals would, in 

 the course of eight or ten years, increase so as to restore the valuable 

 industry now approaching extinction. 



