REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 97 



notable mortality whlcli lias been attributed to disease, nor do previously 

 published reports include any mention of such mortality. It may thus 

 at least be inferred, that no notably fatal disease has attacked these 

 animals whde upon their breeding islands within historic times, but it 

 is not safe to affirm that disease has been wanting-, or that epidemic 

 diseases may not, at any given time, appear, and require to be allowed 

 for in any regulations made respecting the killing of seals. 



340. In the lieport of Mr. C. U. Jackson on the fur-seal islands of 

 Cape Colony, already referred to, he writes: "Upon several islands, 

 especially in the Ishabar group, are to be found the remains of vast 

 numbers of 'seal,' probably the effects of an epidemic disease at some 

 distant period." 



341. On the same subject and referring to the same region, Mr. H. A. 

 Clark writes as follows,'quoti!ig "Morell's Voyages": "In 1828 Captain 

 Morell, in the schooner 'Antarctic,' visited the west coast of Alrica on 

 a fur-seal voyage. At Possession Island, in latitude 20° 51' south, he 

 found evidence of a pestilence among tlie fur-seals. The whole island, 

 which is about 3 miles long, he states, was covered with the carcasses 

 of fur seals, with their skins still on them. They appeared to have 

 been dead about five years^ and it was evident that they had all met 

 their fate about the same j3eriod. I should jvulge, from the immense 

 multitude of bones and carcasses, that not less than half-a million had 

 perished here at once, and that they had fallen victims to some myste- 

 rious disease or plague." About 17 miles north of Possession Island 

 are two small islands not over a mile in length, where Captain Morell 

 found still further evidence of a plague among the fur-seals. "These 

 two islands," he says, "have once been the resort of immense numbers 

 of fur-seals, which were doubtless destroyed by the same plague which 

 made such a devastation among them on Possession Island, as their 

 remains exhibited the same appearance in both cases."* 



342. Elliott, alter stating that he has observed no disease among the 

 seals of the Pribyloft' Islands, quotes a recorded instance of a plague 



affecting the hair seals of the north of Scotland, Orkney and 

 61 Shetland Islands, and adds: "It is not reasonable to suppose 



that the Pribyloff' rookeries have never suffered from distempers 

 in the past, or are not to in the future, simply because no occasion seems 

 to have arisen during the comparatively brief period of their human 

 domination." t 



343. The fur-seals upon the Pribyloff' Islands are, however, afflicted 

 by at least one known trouble, that of intestinal worms, and in the 

 stomachs of nearly every seal killed a certain number, and often a very 

 considerable number, of such worms are found. This cannot of course 

 be considered as constituting in itself a very serious affection, but if 

 under any particular train of circumstances it should be considerably 

 increased, it alone might become a danger to the continued well-being 

 of the seals. 



(L.) — Mortality of youny Seals in 1891. 



344. In the season of 1891, considerable numbers of dead pups were 

 found in certain ]daces upon the rookery grounds or in their vicinity, 

 and various hypotheses were advanced to account for this unusual mor- 

 tality. As some of these have special bearings on the general question 

 of seal preservation, it may be well to devote a few words to this par- 

 ticular subject. 



* " Fishery Industries of the United States," vol. ii, j). 416. 

 t Unitew States Census Report, p. 62. 



B S, PT VI 7 



