PROPERTY IN THE ALASKAN SEAL HERD. 99 



made the subjects of criminal punishment, are not relevant, or are less 

 relevant, in the discussion of the mere question of property. 



It is not contended that in pelagic sealing (1) there can be any select- 

 ive killing; or (2), that a great excess of females over males is not slain; 

 or (3), that a great number of victims perish from wounds, without 

 being recovered; or (4), that in most cases the females killed are not 

 either heavy with young, or nursing mothers; or (5), that each and 

 every of these incidents can not be avoided by the selective killing 

 which is practiced on the breeding islands. We do not stop to discuss 

 the idle questions whether this form of slaughter will actually extermi- 

 nate the herds, or how long it may take to complete the destruction. It 

 is enough for the present purpose to say that it is simple destruction. 

 It is destructive, because it does not make, or aim to make, its draft 

 niton the increase, which consists of the superfluous males, but, by 

 taking females, strikes directly at the stock, and strikes at the stock in 

 the most damaging way, by destroying unborn and newly-born pups, 

 together with their mothers. Whoever undertakes to set up a moral 

 right to prosecute this mode of slaughter on the ground that it will not 

 necessarily result in complete destruction, must maintain that while it 

 maybe against the law of nature to work complete destruction, it is yet 

 lawful to destroy! But what the law of nature forbids is any destruc- 

 tion at all, unless it is necessary. To destroy a little, and to destroy 

 much, are the same crimes. 



If there were even something less than a right, or rather some low 

 degree of right — for nothing other than rights can be taken notice of 

 here — some mere convenience, it might be worthy of consideration; but 

 there is none. It can not even be said that pelagic sealing may furnish 

 to the world a seal-skin at a lower price. Nothing can be plainer than 

 that it is the most expensive mode of capturing seals. It requires the 

 expenditure of a vast sum in vessels, boats, appliances, and human 

 labor, which is all unnecessary, because the entire increase can be 

 reaped without them. This unnecessary expense is a charge upon the 

 cousumer and must be reimbursed in the price he pays. In no way can 

 pelagic sealing result in a cheapening of the product, except upon the 

 assumption that the stock of seals is inexhaustible, and that the amount 

 of the pelagic catch is an addition to the total catch, which might be 

 made on the land if capture were restricted to the land; and this as- 

 sumption is admitted on all hands, and even by the Commissioners of 

 Great Britain, to be untrue. 



