REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 205 



The bearinfc females on the rookeries are estimated at 350,000, but it 

 is stated tliat there are also 250,000 not bearing, and not served in 

 1889 or 1890, owing to dearth of virile males. He states that the con- 

 dition of seal life on the islands is like that which occurred in 1834 

 under the Russian regime. 



George K. Tingle, now in charge of the islands for the ISTorth Ameri- 

 can Commercial Company, states that late in this season there was a 

 marked increase in the arrival of seals on the islands. (Ex. Doc. No. 

 49, 51st Congress, 2nd Session, Exhibit P.) 



A. W. Lavender, Assistant Treasury Agent, notes that large schools 

 of killer whales were about the islands in October, destroying great 

 numbers of pups. (Ex. Doc. No. 49, 51st Congress, 2nd Session.) 



833. 1891. [The result of our investigations and evidence obtained 

 elsewhere detailed shows that the rookeries were this season in better 

 condition than in 1890.] 



YII. — The Pur-seal Fishery in the Southern Hemisphere. 



834. In dealing with the question of the i^resetvation of the valuable 

 fur seal in the North Pacific Ocean, it is desirable to utilize all the 

 experience that may be obtained in regard to the treatment of the fur- 

 seal in other parts of the world, and the records of these seal fisheries 

 are peculiarly abundant. 



835. There are several varieties of seal which have been taken in 

 large numbers south of the Equator which yield that particular close 

 fur so valued in commerce. The three chief varieties are respectively 

 known as the Otaria Australis { = Otaria Fallclandica, Arctocephalus 

 Australis, Arctocephalus FalJclandicus), of the South American coasts; 

 the Otaria Pusilla {^Arctocephalus Antarcticus) of the South African 

 coasts; and the Otaria Fostcri {= Arctocephalus cinereus, Fuotaria cin- 

 erca) of tlie Australasian coasts. But there is much variety in nomen- 

 clature, ever since the fur-seal on Amsterdam Island were described as 

 the Phoca Ursinus in 1770. Professor Flower, the Director of the 

 Natural History Department of the British Museum, has kindly sent 

 us a Memorandum (Ajipendix D), descriptive of these differentiations. 

 The southern fur-seals differ specifically, and according to some natural- 

 ists generically, from those in the Northern Hemisphere. The fur-seal 

 north of the Equator differs in structural character, and especially in 

 the form of the fore part of the skull, from all seals found south of the 

 Equator. 



830. But their habits and manner of life are practically identical, and 

 there are certain conditions common to the presence of all these varieties. 

 For breeding purposes they need rocks in close proximity to the sea, 

 where fogs are frequent. For feeding purposes they require a wide 

 range of ocean, yielding small fish, and squid. For temperature, they 

 prefer temperate and even sub-tropical latitudes, and rarely if ever 

 approach the zone of ice. Ever since the first navigators from Europe 

 entered those seas the fur-seal was found all over the great Southern 

 Ocean in very great abundance from the Galapagos Islands, under the 

 Equator, in the Pacific, the Islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam in the 

 Indian Ocean, and along the shores of Africa and America to the south- 

 ward of the parallel of 20° south latitude in the Atlantic away south to 

 the groups of islands in G0° and 63° south latitude. But their con- 

 tinued existence in such habitats depends (m their not being destroyed 

 or disturbed by man, murrains, or predacious animals. 



