121 



abled by their condition from making rapid movements, are easily 

 approached and killed. It is indisputably sh own by the evidence tha 

 at least 75 per cent of all seals shot by pelagic sealers and actually 

 secured are female seals, the larger part of whom are far advanced 

 in pregnancy when so taken. As soon as the motlier seal is taken 

 by pelagic sealers, her body is ojiened and tlio unborn pup thrown 

 into the sea. It is also shown that large numbers of seals, that 

 are shot at and wounded or kilh'd, sink and are entiiely lost before 

 the hunter can reach tlieni with his small boat. Tlie number so lost 

 varies according to the skill of the hunter in using lire arms and the 

 implements carried for the purpose of securing the seal that has been 

 wounded or killed, before it sinks. But, making a fair average of the 

 per cent given by witnesses on both sides, it is certain that, in addi- 

 tion to the seals actually taken by hunters using fire arms, not less 

 than 25 to 40 per cent of all seals wounded sink before they are 

 reached by the hunter, and are entirely lost. In pelaf/ic sealing 

 there can he no selective Jcillinfi so far as sex is concerned, for it is agreed 

 hat a hnnter can not tell ivliether the seal at vhich he shoots in the 

 water is of the male or female sex. Such an attack upon the breeding 

 females, if continued for a few years, will, of course, result in the ex- 

 termination of this polygamous race. The slaughter of the female seal 

 not only involves the loss of the mother and its unborn pup, but, as 

 Mr. Blaine well said, "the future loss of the whole number which the 

 bearing seal may jiroduce in the successiv^e years of life. The destruc- 

 tion which results from killing seals in the open sea proceeds, therefore, 

 by a ratio which constantly and ra]Mdly increases, and insures the 

 total extermination of the species within a very brief period." Besides, 

 in the long run, the killing of a female which has not yet borne young, 

 or which is too young to have borne many pnps, is more destructive 

 than to kill one somewhat advanced in years. 



The largest number of vessels engaged in hunting these fur seals on 

 the high seas outside of territorial waters in any year previous to 

 188G was 16. The number increased in 1880 to 34, in 1887 to 47, in 1889 

 to 68, in 1800 to 91, in 1891 to 115, in 1892 to 122. The catch, 

 in the open sea by pelagic hunters of seals belonging to the 

 Pribilof herd has steadily increased for ten years past, so that 

 in the North Pacific Ocean, south of the Aleutian Islands, it 

 amounted to 68,000 in 1891 and at least 70,000 in 1892, the modus 



