318 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
In this sealing no discrimination was made in the character of the seals 
taken. All animals whose skins were of any value were slaughtered, and the 
newly born young, usually left on the killing grounds, died of starvation. In 
the rush to the Antarctic sealing grounds the markets were frequently glutted 
and much of the catch wasted. 
The South African fur seal (Arctocephalus delalandt) , frequenting small islands 
off the west coast of South Africa, became very rare from indiscriminate sealing. 
It has, during very recent years, been protected by the government of Cape 
Colony. ‘The yield of skins from this source has been as follows: 1902, 1,300; 
1903, 4,800; 1904, 7,400; 1905, 1,231; 1906, 12,640; 1907, 16,786; 1908, 13,649. 
One resort of the genus Arctocephalus, the Galapagos Islands, lying on the 
equator, about 800 miles west of Ecuador, furnishes an especially striking 
illustration of wasteful sealing. These seals (Arctocephalus philippi) were taken 
in important numbers by early voyagers. Between 1870 and 1882 the rookeries 
were again visited by sealers, and, as far as shown by the meager records col- 
lected from the sealers still living who engaged in this fishery, about 20,000 
seals were taken. ‘This is of course a trivial number as compared with the 
total catch made during that period, the records of which are not available. 
Later voyages resulted in the killing of all the seals that could be found. At 
the time of my first visit to the Galapagos Islands, in 1888, I was informed that 
there were only a few seals remaining, and those about the uninhabited westerly 
islands of the archipelago. 
It was a matter of great surprise when, in 1897 and 1898, a vessel returned 
to San Francisco from the Galapagos Islands with a catch of several hundred 
fur seals. It appears that the few that had escaped the slaughter of the last 
voyage, fifteen years before, had established themselves on the identical rook- 
eries from which they had been driven, as comparisons of the log books of the 
vessels showed. Unknown to anyone, the nucleus of a fine herd existed there, 
which no doubt could have been developed into an.important seal fishery if the 
fact had been known in time to prevent its destruction by raiders. It is prob- 
able, indeed, that a few individuals have escaped this last slaughter, and with 
the prompt protection of the rookeries by the Government of Ecuador a fishery 
could yet be established. 
Another species of fur seal (Arctocephalus townsendi), the most northerly 
offshoot of the Antarctic race, formerly inhabited Guadaloupe and other islands 
off the west coast of Lower California. From the scattered records that have 
been found it appears that 15,000 seals have been taken there within compara- 
tively recent years. (The earlier records are not available.) During the 
writer’s visit to Guadaloupe, in 1892, straggling fur seals were observed about 
the island, and specimens obtained proved the species to be new to science. It 
