SECTION I. 



THE ROOKERIES OR BREEDING GROUNDS OF THE FUR SEAL ON THE 

 PRIBILOV ISLANDS OF ALASKA; THEIR AREA AND CONDITION IN 



1873-1874 AND 1890. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE FUR SEAL AND ITS EXTER- 

 MINATION IN THE ANTARCTIC. 



PECULIARITIES OF DISTRIBUTION. 



Our first thouglit in studyiug the distribution of the fur seals through- 

 out the high seas of the earth is one of wonder. While they have been 

 so widely spread over the Antarctic regions, yet, as we pass the equa- 

 tor going north, we find in the Atlantic above the tropics nothing that 

 resembles them. Their landed habitat in the North Pacific is virtually 

 confined to four islands in Bering Sea — St. Paul and St. George — of the 

 Pribilov group, and Bering and Copper of the Commander Islands. 



It should be observed that there is abundant reason, owing to the 

 constitution and the habit of Callorhimis, for this remarkable restric- 

 tion in the Northern Hemisphere compared with its expansion to the 

 south. It is, however, very singular, even in the light of all we know, 

 that right on the equator itself, a trifle to the southward of it, viz, on 

 the Galapagos Islands, fur seals are still found where they were first 

 found a hundred years ago. 



The remarkable discrepancy which we have alluded to, may be better 

 understood when we consider that t'lese animals require certain condi- 

 tions of landing, breeding ground, and climate, all combined, for their 

 perfect life and reproduction. In the North Atlantic no suitable ground 

 for their reception exists or ever did exist; and really nothing in the 

 North Pacific, beyond what we have designated in Bering Sea, will 

 answer the requirements of the fur seal. When we look over the Ant- 

 arctic waters we are surprised at what might have been done, and should 

 have been done, in those southern waters. Hundreds of miles of the 

 finest seal-breeding grounds on the western coast of Patagonia, the 

 beautiful reaches of the Falkland Islands, the great extent of Desola- 

 tion Island, together with the whole host of smaller islets, where these 

 animals abounded in almost countless numbers when first discovered 

 (and should abound to-day, millions upon millions of them), have 

 been, through nearly a century, the scenes of indiscriminate slaughter, 

 directed by most unscrupulous and most energetic men. It seems well- 

 nigh incredible, but it is true, nevertheless, that for more than fifty 

 years a large fleet, numbering more than sixty sail, and carrying thou- 

 sands of active men, traversed this coast and circumnavigated every 

 island and islet, annually slaughtering right and left wherever the seal 

 life was found. Ships were laden to the water's edge with the fresh, 

 air-dried, and salted skins, and they were swallowed up in the marts of 

 the world, bringing mere nominal prices — the markets glutted, but the 

 butchery never stopping. 



I will pass in brief review the seal grounds of the Southern Hemis- 

 phere, taking at the outset those which are peculiar to the waters of 

 the Pacific Ocean. The Galapagos Islands come fii'st to our notice. 

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