106 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY: 
taken on their breeding places on the drifting ice, where the 
crews land and kill the younger animals by clubbing. More than 
ninety per cent. of the catch is made up of young seals, taken 
before they are three weeks old, when they are large enough to 
enter the water. Owing to the fact that this species is taken upon 
the ice fields, and that the latter are at times greatly. disturbed 
by storms, the catch of seals is subjected to certain natural lim- 
itations. After the more effective steamers had replaced sailing 
vessels it became necessary to place restrictions upon the slaugh- 
ter of the animals. At the present time the season begins March 
16 and the period during which seals are taken upon the ice 
lasts little longer than a month. The products utilized are the 
hides and oil, and the results of the industry from 1899 to date 
are as follows: 
Year 1899, Seals 268,881, Net Value $342,378. 
1900, B52 705 483,601. 
LOOT) Wy oe) 345,055.26 mae cos 
1902, BM 27 ARBOR Tee 402,623. 
LOO3;0 fm OL 73500 aa or e195 7076 
ST GO4 a) 6082945473) 5 i) Ae 08,704" 
Southern Sea Elephant.—One of the practically exhausted seal 
fisheries is that based upon the sea-elephant or elephant seal 
(Macrorhinus leoninus), which once abounded on many of the 
islands off the southern portion of South America and on the 
Antarctic islands generally. Sea-elephants existed on their natu- 
ral breeding grounds in great numbers, where they were killed 
for their oil, the skins having little value. No precautions were 
ever taken to preserve the race, and the species became scarce. 
The taking of the sea-elephant as an industry practically died 
out a number of years ago, which gave the scattered remnants 
of the race an opportunity to increase. The killing of sea-ele- 
phants in the Antarctic was revived about ten years ago at Ker- 
Caspian Seal.—Although seal fisheries are naturally associated with 
the great oceans, an important sealing industry is that of the Caspian 
Sea, which has long been carried on in this inland brackish lake. The 
seal which is the basis of this fishery (Phoca caspica), is a species peculiar 
to the locality, which probably found its way to its present habitat in 
very ancient times when the Caspian was connected with other seas. 
About thirty years ago the average annual seal catch in the Caspian Sea 
was slightly over 100,000, worth in skins and oil $350,000. There are no 
recent data at hand. 
Lake Baikal Seal——Another seal (Phoca sibirica), remarkable chiefly 
for its habitat, is that found in Lake Baikal in the heart of Siberia. Here, 
however, the range of seals is restricted to a body of water only 400 miles 
long, and their numbers are too small to be of more than local importance. 
