Towns end. — Pribilof Seal Herd 273 



The destruction of young through the fighting of the 

 bulls is of serious extent even when large numbers of surplus 

 males are annually killed for marketable skins. It must 

 have been vastly more serious prior to the utilization of 

 sealskins by man. 



It is the belief of naturalists who have studied the fur 

 seal on its native islands that the furious fighting of the 

 males upon the breeding grounds actually constituted Na- 

 ture's check to the unlimited increase of the race. It could 

 have been nothing else, although the worm parasite ( Unci- 

 uaria) of the sand areas must be considered to some extent 

 in this connection. 



Prior to the discovery of the Pribilofs the breeding 

 grounds were undoubtedly overflowed at times by such 

 hordes of mature males that an important proportion of the 

 young of the year, and many adult females, were destroyed. 



There can be no doubt that the annual reduction of the 

 male surplus for commercial purposes since the discovery 

 of the islands has greatly lessened the breeding-time turmoil 

 of the rookeries, and that proportionately large numbers of 

 young survive the perils of infancy- Now that pelagic seal- 

 ing, so wasteful of the adult female life, has been suppressed, 

 we may expect an annual expansion of our shrunken breed- 

 ing grounds. 



The male stock of the islands should be watched with 

 great care and its numbers kept within safe bounds. A sud- 

 den increase of fighting males in the rookeries at a time when 

 the stock of females has reached the lowest limit in the his- 

 tory of the islands, would greatly endanger the newly born 

 young. 



Here we may take up a matter of importance to this So- 

 ciety. A resolution was introduced in the House of Repre- 

 sentatives on August 12 to provide for the suspension of all 

 seal killing on the Pribilofs for a period of fifteen years. 

 This resolution may come up for consideration when Con- 

 gress convenes. Its passage would be unwise in many ways, 

 but chiefly in the danger of a rapid increase in fighting male 



