CONCERNING FUR SEALS 131 



now numbered thirty-five ; but note — please — these were mostly 

 Americans and Canadians under a Japanese flag. 



The letter of the law was dead, and the spirit of the law was a 

 joke. 



Then the Camp Fire Club got busy. Seal articles appeared 

 everywhere. Seal speeches became part of the great Conservation 

 Propaganda in vogue in those years. I did not know I was a victim 

 of that propaganda, but on looking up my files I find I wrote about 

 seals exactly what a member of the great Revillons Fur Company 

 had told me of the horrors of skinning seals alive ; and I took their 

 word because they were a French firm not involved financially to 

 the extent of a centime. They showed me some Sea Otter they 

 had bought that year ; and predicted exactly what another ten years 

 would do to Sea Otter. And their statement was only too true. 



Resulted the international treaty stopping all pelagic sealing; 

 and whatever the defects of that treaty, give it credit for saving 

 the seal. The United States Government took over all sealing 

 operations, on which Japan was to receive a royalty of 15 per cent 

 on all proceeds, England 10 per cent. During completely closed 

 seasons, England and Japan were to receive each $10,000 a year. 

 The pity is South American Governments were not signatories to 

 that treaty ; and the question is bound to erupt again ; for Seal 

 Life has been saved and has come back. 



The Seal Herd in 191 8 numbered 496,432 of which 285,000 are 

 bearing mothers, about 5000 aged bulls, and the rest growing young- 

 sters. By 1922, or 1926 at latest, it is calculated seal life will 

 be producing more seal fur than in its palmiest days without the loss 

 of a mother or a pup. The increase will now go ahead at a rate of 

 compound interest, which explains why the trade is holding off a 

 little from high prices for seal pelts. It is expected Alaska Seal will 

 soon be selling at prices as cheap as its imitation. What the effect 

 will be on the imitation trade is one of the technical points from 

 which a layman shies back. The demand for Alaska Seal will al- 

 ways be so great, especially if stimulated by low prices, that I do 



