127 



checked, both ill the North P;u;itic and in the Beriiij^' Sea, the eco- 

 uomic extermination of Oallorhinits ursinus in merely the matter of a 

 few yearsJ^ U. S. Case, Vol. 1, Ap}). 423. 



Prof. Blauchard, of the Medical Faculty of Paris, aud general sec- 

 retary of the Zoological Society of France: "By reason of the mas- 

 sacres of which it is the victim, this species is advancing rapidly to its 

 total and final destruction, following the fatal road on which tlmBhy- 

 tina iStelleri, the Monarehtis tropliieaUSj aud the Macrorhinus angustiros- 

 tris have preceded it, to cite only the great mainmifers which but 

 recently abounded in the American seas. Now, the irremediable 

 destruction of an eminently useful animal species, such as this one, is, 

 to speak plainly, a crime of which avc are rendering ourselves guilty 

 tow ards our descendants. To satisfy our instincts of cupidity we vol- 

 untarily exhaust, aud that forever, a source of wealth, wliicli properly 

 regulated, ought, on the contrary, to contribute to the lU'osperity of 

 our own generation and of those which will succeed it. * * * With 

 his harpoons, his tirearms, and his machines of every kind, man with 

 whom the instinct of destruction attains its highest ])oint, is the worst 

 enemy of nature and of mankind itself. Happily, while yet in time^ 

 the savants sound the alarm. In this century, when we believe in 

 science, we must hope that their voice will not be lost in the desert." 



Profs. Lilljeborg and Nordenskiold, of the Academy of Sciences, 

 Sweden unite in declaring: "As to the former question, the killing of 

 the seals on the, rookeries, it seems at present regulated in a suita- 

 ble rnanuer to effectually prevent the gradual diminishing of the stock. 

 Ifa wider experience should require some modifications in these regula- 

 tions, there is no danger but that such modifications will be adopted. It 

 isevidently in the interest of the owners of the rookeries to take care that 

 this source of wealth shall not be lessened by excessive exploitation. 

 Nor will there be any difficulty for studying the conditions of health and 

 thriving of the animals during the rookery season. As to pelagic 

 sealing, it is evident that a systematic hunting of the seals in the open 

 sea on the way to and from or around the rookeries, will very soon 

 cause the complete extinction of this valuable, and, from a scientific 

 point of view, so extremely interesting and important animal, espe- 

 cially as a great number of the animals killed in this manner are preg- 

 nant cows, or cows temi)orarily separated from their pups while seek- 

 ing food in the vicinity of the rookery. Everyone having some expe- 

 rience in seal hunting can also attest that only a relatively small part 



