112 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



interest, they can Lave absolutely no fixed value in connection with the 

 I)ractical matters under discussion. It is, in fact, largely to ideas 

 loosely based on the observable extent of ground which has at onetime 

 or another, but never simultaneously, been occupied by seals, that 

 many of the exaggerated estimates of the amount of the present reduc- 

 tion in number of seals in the islands may be directly traced. 



(O.) — Changes in Habits of the Fur-seal in recent Years. 



396. The systematic and i^ersistent hunting and slaughter of the fur- 

 seal of the North Pacific, both on shore and at sea, has uatuially and 

 inevitably given rise to certain changes in the habits and mode of life 

 of that animal, which are of importance not only in themselves, but as 

 indicating the eifects of such pursuit, and in showing in what particular 

 this is injurious to seal life as a Avhole. Such changes doubtless began 

 more than a century ago, and some of them may be traced in the histor- 

 ical precis, elsewhere given (§ 782 et seq.). It is unfortunately true, 

 however, that the disturbance to the normal course of seal life has 

 become even more serious in recent years, and that there is, therefore, 

 no lack of material from which to study its character and effect even at 

 the present time. 



397. The changes in habits and mode of life of the seals naturally 

 divide themselves into two classes, which may be considered separately. 

 The first and most direct and palpable of these is that shown in the 

 increased shyness and wariness of the animal, which, though always 

 pelagic in its nature, has been forced bj^ circumstances to shun the land 

 more than before, so that, but for the necessity imposed upon it of seek- 

 ing the shore at the season of birth of the young, it might ])robably ere 

 this have become entirely pelagic. Changes of the second class embrace 

 those which have resulted from a disproportion of the sexes, produced by 

 the continuous and excessive killing of males of certain ages, and from 

 new and more destructive methods adopted on the breeding islands 

 because of diminished numbers and other such circumstances. The 

 increasing irregularity and overlap])ii!g in the dates in the events of 



seal life may be included in this latter class. 

 72 398. Changes of the first <-]ass have now apparently become, 



in a measure, hereditary, while those of the second depend almost 

 from year to year upon the treatment at the time accorded to the seals, 

 and might, in the course of a few years at most, with care, be caused 

 to revert to their former normal condition. 



399. Pelagic sealers of experience are almost unanimous in stating 

 that the fur-seal is each j'^ear becoming more alert and difficult of 

 approach and capture, while the independent native hunters add their 

 testimony to the san)e effect, and there can be no question as to the 

 general tact. Such changes are more notable at vseathan on the breed- 

 ing islands, for when at sea the seal is in its natural element, and free 

 to exercise its instincts of self-preservation ; when on shore at the 

 breeding season it is, on the contrary, practically defenceless, and, 

 beyond the instinct to attempt to escape from immediate death about 

 to be inflicted by the club or otherwise, it is incapable of seeking 

 safety, and is at the mercy of tlie seal killer. Its only refuge, under these 

 circumstances, is to seek, if such may be fjund, some new breeding- 

 place unknown or inaccessible to man. Captain Scammon, many years 

 ago, adverted to this fact in the following terms: "We may add, like- 

 wise, from our own observation, and as the expressed o]nnion of several 

 experienced sealing-masters, that their natural migrations extend over 

 a great expanse of ocean; and if they are unduly disturbed in their 



