REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 1G3 



( D , ) — Composition of Catch. 



633. By the pelagic sealers and by the Indian hunters along the coast, 

 fur-seals of both sexes are killed, and, iiuleed, it would be unreasonable, 

 under the circumstances, to expect that a distinction should be made 

 in this respect, any niore than that the angler should discriiuinate 

 between the sexes of the lish he may hook. Even upon the breeding 

 islands, it is diflicult for the most experienced natives to distinguish 

 virgin females from young males of corresponding size in the drives,* 

 and in the autumn of 1891, we are informed by an eyewitness, that in 

 endeavouring to secure a female yearling seal alive for the zoological 

 collection at San Francisco, no less than seven male seals were succes- 

 sively captured by the natives, who, judging from the general appear- 

 ance of the animals, believed them to be females, before one of the 

 requisite sex was obtained ! At sea, save In exceptional cases, females 

 can only be certainly detected by an examination of the body when it 

 is brought on bijard. The fur of the female is equally good with that 

 of the male, and under the conditions under which the hunting is car- 

 ried on, there is room for no sentimental considerations in favour of either 

 sex. But it is unfortunately the case, that at certain seasons consid- 

 erable numbers of gravid females are thuJ^ killed, and this killing is 

 deprecated by the better classes of the pelagic sealers themselves, not 

 alone on grounds of hunmuity, but because they see clearly that it is 

 unduly destructive to the industry in which their fortunes are embarked. 

 From communications held with pelagic sealers, there can be no doubt 

 that any equitable arrangement having for its object the minimizing of 

 this particular cause of loss would be favourably received by them. 

 With the natives along the coast it is somewhat difi'erent; their tradi- 

 tional code of ethics admits of no period of immunity for any wild 

 animal, and the contingency of future decrease appears to them to be 

 too remote to be taken into their consideration. They are constitution- 

 ally observant, and in no degree reticent about the killing of females 

 with young, and the statements on this subject obtained from them may 

 be implicitly trusted. 



634. On the question of the general composition of the ]ielagic catch 

 in respect to sex and age of seals killed, and the special abundance of 

 various kinds of seals in certain parts of the hunting area or at par- 

 ticular dates, evidence varying nuich as to numerical proportion and 

 often diametrically opposite in bearing may easily be obtained. It is 

 only natural, and is entirely in accord with what might be expected, 

 that the proportions of seals by sexes and ages should be found to differ 

 very considerably in difterent instances, even in a single year, in con- 

 formity with the dates or places in which the greater i^roportion of any 

 particular catch was secured, and the kind of seals in each case fallen 

 in with. Some landsmen are found to be emphatically certain that 

 nearly the whole of the pelagic catch consists of females, but this does 

 not accord with the testimony of those who are or have been actually 

 engaged in sea-sealing; and while it is not maintained that the evidence 

 of such practical sealers is entirely untinctured by motives of personal 

 interest, it must be evident that these men know more on the subject 

 than any others. Subjoined are quotations or abstracts relating to the 

 composition of the pelagic catch, obtained from what are believed to be 

 trnstworthy sources, and in a number of cases derived from statements 

 made over the signatures of the individuals as taken under oath. The 



*See "Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool.,"vol. ii, Part I, p. 105. 



