VALUE OF MAMMALS TO MAN 



33 



the sea elephant, the largest of the tribe, an animal often 

 twenty-five feet in length. The men outfit at the Cape of 

 Good Hope, go to the islands under contract for one or 

 two years, and are left in the most desolate place in the 

 world. At one island the beach is so situated that the men 

 kill the animals and haul them off through the surf. The 

 climate here is cold and windy, yet men inure themselves 

 to it, and the aggregate sum derived from the fishery is 



Fig. 23. —The Fox, 



very large, the oil being the most valuable article. This 

 means the extinction of the animal in a few years. 



Almost as large is the walrus, also killed for its oil, 

 although the long beautiful tusks are the most valuable 

 article from this source, and many hundred pounds are 

 taken yearly. 



The mink, sable, ermine, fox, and many small animals 

 of the north are valuable, the Russian sable and ermine 

 especially being valued. As fashions change, many furs 

 are used and valued whose nature is unsuspected. Thus 



HOI.UEK, MAMMALS — 3 



