OTHER SEAL HERDS 221 



The necessity of protection to seal life from British protec- 

 tion of the seal, 

 unlimited destruction, in order that the species 



may be preserved, is not only evidenced by the 

 examples above cited, but has been recognized 

 by a number of nations, especially by Great 

 Britain and her colonies. In fact, it may be 

 said that wherever fur-seals breed in territory 

 over which Great Britain has control the species 

 has received particular protection from indis- 

 criminate slaughter. At the Falkland Islands, a Falkland isl- 

 ands. 

 British dependency, formerly so productive of 



the fur seal species, the Government of the 

 Islands in 1881 issued a decree,^ the preamble 

 of which is as follows: "Whereas the Seal Fish- 

 eries of these Islands, which was at one time a 

 source of profit and advantage to the colonists, 

 has been exhausted by indiscriminate and waste- 

 ful fishing, and it is desirable to revive and pro- 

 tect this industry by the establishment of a Close 

 Time during which it shall be unlawful to kill or 

 capture seals within the limits of this Colony and 

 its dependencies." The ordinance proceeds to 

 enact stringent regulations prohibiting seal 

 hunting "within the limits of this Colony and 

 its dependencies." Capt. Budington, an ex- 

 perienced navigator and seal hunter in southern 



' Falkland Islands Seal Fishery Ordinance, Vol. I, p. 435. 



