32 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1910. 



fundamental respects as those pursued by the Russians since 1840. 

 They are the result of years of experience and are the best that can be 

 devised to meet the conditions. No change in them should be made. 



The practice of killing bachelor seals for skins as well as for natives' 

 food should not be abandoned unless a cogent reason presents itself. 

 No harm to the seal herd can result from the killing of surplus males. 

 No benefit to the herd could accrue from the maturing of males 

 unnecessary for purposes of reproduction, which, when of adult age, 

 would have no female consorts, but which, by incessant and furious 

 fighting, would destroy or cripple the breeding bulls and themselves 

 as well. 



It is true that a test to insure the survival of the fittest should be 

 applied to the male fur seal, as in fact it should to all breeders. It 

 is not true, however, that this test can only be made through trial 

 of combat. With respect to some groups of animals, such as the 

 Pinnipedia, conditions of their natural environment may be so severe 

 as to eliminate weaklings as effectually or even more so, than would 

 fighting amongst themselves, and nature provides an eliminative 

 process in the case of the fur seal entirely apart from the struggling 

 of bulls with each other for supremacy on land. This test begins 

 almost with a seal's birth. 



When the baby seal has scarcely learned to swim beyond the borders 

 of the rookery on which it .is born, while it is still a suckling and 

 knows not how to seek other food, it is separated from its mother 

 and driven off the land by the rigor of the climate. Weak and 

 unskillful swimmer as the pup is, not only must it withstand the 

 severe winter storms in the northern ocean but in the same unfa- 

 vorable element pursue and capture its food and elude its natural 

 enemies of the sea. As the result of this struggle with the natural 

 conditions in which it is placed it is estimated that one-half of the 

 pups die during the initial migration. Only the strongest and most 

 wary can survive this trial. 



This struggle for existence continues incessantly during the ani- 

 mal's life. From each migration it sends back to the breeding grounds 

 only those animals hardy enough to withstand its severity. That 

 animal leaving the rookeries with any physical imperfection does 

 not return. It dies at sea. Those that do return are the most 

 perfect examples of their class. 



With this severe eliminative test occurring as the result of natural 

 environment, to superimpose a violent struggle with his own kind 

 after the animal has reached the breeding ground would be to sub- 

 ject him to further stress entirely unnecessary to prove his ability as 

 a breeder. Having passed successfully through the winter's migra- 

 tion, the animal returns to the rookeries a perfect specimen of its 

 kind. A severe trial by combat could not have the effect of increasing 



