244 PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION. 



Opinion of Lon- November 12, 1886, in relation, among other 



dou furriers, 



tiling's, to tlie preservation of tlje Alaskan herd, 

 states that " should Great Britain deny the right 

 of the United States Government to protect the 

 (seal) fishery in an effectual manner there can 

 be no doubt that the Alaska fur-seals, which 

 furnish by far the most important part of the 

 world's supply of sealskins, will be exterminated 

 in a very few years, just as in the South Atlan- 

 tic, the Shetland and Georgia fur-seals, which 

 used to furnish even finer pelts than the Alas- 

 kas, have already been."^ Again, in Septembei", 

 1890, Lampson & Co. wrote to the Foreign 

 Office that "unless a close season can be 

 arranged immediately the animal will undoubt- 

 edly become extinct within a very short time." ^ 

 Mr. C. Hawkins, a British subject, in a letter 

 already mentioned, addressed to the Marquis of 

 Salisbury, states that '' this wholesale slaughter 

 of the females will, in a short time, bring about 

 the extermination of the seal in that district if 

 not arrested."^ 

 Opinions of M. Lcoii Revillou, a member of the well 

 known Parisian firm of Revillon freres, which has 

 been eno-ag-ed in the manufacture of sealskin o-ar- 

 ments for over twenty years, in speaking for his 



'British Bliio Book, U. S. No. 2 (1890), C-6131, p.24. 



2 British Blue Book, U. S. No. 1 (1891), C-6253, p. 11. 



3 Britisb Blue Book, U. S. No. 3 (1892), C-6635, p. 5. 



