216 ■ Pelagic sealing. 



Cause of (leatb wlio liavG livGcl tlicre for many years, testify tliat 

 ofpupa. -^ -^ -' ^ 



although they have eaten seal meat all their 

 lives they never knew of a sick seal and never 

 heard from the old residents of sickness among 

 seals.^ This great mortality, therefore, was not 

 caused by an epidemic among the animals, for no 

 dead adult seals were seen.^ 

 Effects of pciag- The injurious and destructive effects of open- 

 sea sealing, as demonstrated above, can be sum- 

 med up as follows: Between eighty and ninety 

 per cent of the seals taken are females ; of these 

 at least seventy-five per cent are either pregnant 

 or nursing ; that the destruction of these females 

 causes the death of the unborn pup seals or those 

 on the rookeries dependent on their mothers for 

 nourishment ; and, finally, that at least sixty-six 

 per cent of the seals killed by white hunters are 

 never secured. Besides this, the females taken 

 in Bering Sea have certainly in the majority of 

 cases been impregnated,^ and their death means 

 not only the destruction of the pups on the island, 

 but also of the fetus. Hence, if 10,000 females 

 are killed in one season, this fact means not only 

 the depletion of the herd by at least 17,500 that 



1 Anton Meloveclofif", Vol. II, p. 143. See also Daniel Webster, 

 Vol. II, p. 183; E(l^Ya^d Hughes, Vol. II, p. 37. 



"Aggie Kusliin, Vol. II, p. 128; Nicoli Krukoff, Vol. II, p. 133; 

 Karp liuterin. Vol. II, p. 103; Jolin Fratis, Vol. II, p. 107. 



« jH/f,p. 115. 



