ABSOLUTE PROHIBITION OF PELAGIC SEALING. 515 



Bering Sea seems to be peculiarly adapted to the wants of tlie fur- 

 seals. Its climate is moist, the sun rarely shines in summer, and the 

 water abounds in fish. Here [in Bering Sea] also pelagic seal hunters 

 find their best opportunity. They can stay about where they please un- 

 der cover of the fog and defy any guard-ship to detect them. The range 

 of the seals is very broad, and it is impossible to watch every square 

 mile. The only way to stop the destruction of the rookeries is to stop 

 pelagic sealing. If it is cruel and wasteful to destroy a whole species of 

 useful breeding animals, it is just a cruel and wasteful, in proportion, to 

 kill a few of them. Why should any be killed? 



I do not believe any partial measure of protection will stop the deple- 

 tion of the rookeries. If vessels may be fitted out with the parapher- 

 nalia for seal hunting, and skins brought into port and sold with im- 

 punity, the hunters will manage by hook or crook to evade any restric- 

 tion. 



Unless proper measures are taken to restrict the indiscriminate cap- 

 ture of the fur-seal in the North Pacific he is of 



the opinion that the extermination of this species c P?' £}' l l tp { J V; tle y 



.,,/.,. „ ., , it bclater, i ol. i, p. 413. 



will take place in a few years as it has already 



done in the case of other species of the same group in other parts of the 



world. 



It seems to him that the proper way of proceeding would be to stop 

 the killing of females and young of the fur-seal altogether, or as far as 

 possible, and to restrict the killing of the males to a certain number 

 in each year. 



The only way he can imagine by which these rules could be carried 

 out is by killing the seals only on the islands at the breeding time (at 

 which time it appears that the young males keep apart from the females 

 and old males), and by preventing 'altogether, as far as possible, the 

 destruction of the fur-seal at all other times and in other places. 



The seal herd which frequents St. Paul and St. George can be only 

 preserved, in my opinion, by preventing all kill- 

 ing of seals except on the islands, where judicious b. f. Scnbner, p. 90. 

 regulations can be enforced, as to the number, sex, 



age, and conditions of the seals can be taken; otherwise extermination 

 will result in a very short time. If the seal herd is protected, and the 

 regulations now in force are maintained, a hundred thousand seals can 

 be taken annually from these islands for an indefinite time, provided 

 the seal life is allowed to regain its normal condition from the drain 

 lately made upon it by the indiscriminate slaughter occasioned by open- 

 sea sealing. 



I consider it necessary for the preservation of the seal herd which 

 resorts to the Pribilof Islands, and for the preven- 

 tion of their early extermination, that pelagic l. G. Shepard, p. 189. 

 sealing should cease in all waters which they fre- 

 quent. 



I think that all pelagic seal hunting should be stopped so the seal 

 can become plentiful again, for now the seal are 

 so scarce that the Indians can catch but very few, Aaron Simson, p. 290. 

 where in olden times they caught plenty. 



If the schooners are not stopped from hunting Thomas Skowl, p. 300. 

 seal they will soon all be gone. 



