PROPERTY IN THE ALASKAN SEAL HERD. 89 



self makes provision for the purpose. In limiting within narrow bounds 

 his control over them, she correspondingly limits his power of* destruc- 

 tion. She confers upon these races the means of eluding - capture. 

 And, besides this, in the case of wild animals most largely useful, she 

 makes destruction practically impossible by furnishing a prodigious 

 supply. The great families of useful fishes are practically inexhaust- 

 ible. This is, however, much less so in some cases than in others. In re- 

 spect of many species of fishes, game birds, and other animals, the 

 humau pursuit is so eager as to endanger the existence of the species; 

 and in such instances, society, unable by the award of a property in- 

 terest to arrest the destruction, resorts to the most effective devices 

 which are in its power to secure that end. It confines and limits the 

 destruction to certain seasons and places by positive enactments of 

 which game laws are the type. 



We now come to those animals which lie near the vague and indefi- 

 nite boundary which separates the ivild from the tame, to animals which 

 exhibit some of the qualities of each class; and we shall instance those 

 already made the subject of discussion when confining our inquiry to 

 the settled doctrines of the municipal law. These instances were those 

 of bees, deer, pigeons, wild geese, and swans. All these, it will be re- 

 membered, are regarded in that law as subjects of property so long- 

 as they possess the animum reverten di, evidenced by their usual habit 

 of returning to a particular place. These animals differ widely from 

 each other in their nature; but they have certain characteristics which 

 are common to all. Each of them, habitually and voluntarily, so far 

 subjects itself to the control of man as to enable him, by the practice 

 of art and industry, to take the annual increase for the supply of human 

 wants without diminishing the stock; in other words, to breed them, and 

 to make them the subject of husbandry ; and, in the case of each, unless 

 a property interest were awarded by the law, that is to say, unless the 

 law came to the aid of human infirmity, and declared them to be sus- 

 ceptible of ownership, notwithstanding the want of actual possession, 

 they would cease to exist and be lost to the world. 



The case of bees is an instructive illustration. They are by nature 

 wild. They can not be tamed so as to be made obedient to man. They 

 move freely through the air and gather their honey from flowers in all 

 places. Bui they have an instinct which moves them to adopt a suit- 

 able place for a home, and man may avail himself of this to induce them 

 to take up their abode upon his prox3erty, where he can protect them 



