OTHER SEAL HERDS. 219 



from a commercial point of view, practically Destruction, 

 extinct. A full account of the distribution and 

 the destruction of the antartic seal herds is given 

 by Dr. Allen in his article found in the Appendix.^ 

 Captain Budington, who for over twenty years 

 has sealed about Cape Horn and the islands of 

 the South Atlantic, making his last trip to these 

 regions in the winter of 1891-92, says : " From 

 hundred of thousands of seals resorting to these 

 islands and coasts the numbers have been reduced 

 to a few hundred, which seek the land in scat- 

 tered bands and rush to sea on the approach of 

 man."^ He further adds : '^ Seals in the antarctic 

 regions are practically extinct, and I have given 

 up the business as being unprofitable."^ In 

 speaking of the cause of this extermination, lie 

 says: ^^The seals in all these localities have 

 been destroyed by the indiscriminate killing of 

 old and young, male and female. If the seals in 

 these regions had been protected and only a 

 certain number of '' dogs" (young males unable 

 to hold their position on the beaches) allowed 

 to be killed, these islands and coasts would be 

 again populous with seal life. The seals would 

 certainly not have decreased and would have 



1 Article by Dr. Allen, Parts I and II, Vol. I, pp. 365, 393. 



2 Vol. II, x>. 595. See also Isaac Liebes, Vol. II, p. 515. 



3 Vol. II, p. 595. 



