ALASKAN HERD. 2-15 



s ot 

 riers. 



comi)aiiy, says: '^ We firmly believe that if tlie Opinions 



^ "^ *^ "^ ^ French furrie 



slaughter of the Northwest Coast fur-seals is not 

 stopped or regulated, the Alaska fur-seals will 

 disappear entirely, as is the case with the seals of 

 the Shetland Islands."^ The same belief is also 

 stated by M. Emin Hertz, head of the fur firm 

 of Emin Hertz & Cie., which is located in the 

 city of Paris. He says: ''If this pursuit in the 

 open sea continues as in the past two years, the 

 said firm firmly believes that hi a short time- the 

 &eil will exist only as a souvenir and will be 

 completely exterminated."^ 



Mr. Elkan AYasserman, of San Francisco, who Opinions of 



,, r ' r n ' , //x-i American furriers. 



has been a lUiTier tor thu'ty years, says: ''Jbrom 

 my knowledge of the sealing business, I am satis- 

 fied that the seals will be entirely exterminated 

 unless protected from the indiscriminate pursuit 

 in the waters that has been going on for the last 

 few years." ^ Mr. C. A. Williams, one of the 

 original members of the Alaska Commercial Com- 

 pany, formerly lessees of the Pribilof Islands' 

 but no longer interested in those rookeries, says 

 that if open-sea sealing continues the seals of 

 Bering Sea will within five years be as extinct as 

 the seals of the South Sea Islands.^ And Mr. 



1 Vol. II, p. 590. 



2 Vol. II, p. 588. 



3 Vol. II, p. 534. 

 * Vol. II, p. 538. 



