ALASKAN HERD. 251 



limited proliibition, wliile those who are mibiased Means neccs • 

 by interest or who desire the preservation of the 

 seal declare that absolute prohibition can only 

 accomplish its preservation. 



Mr. Phillii) Liitley Sclater, Ph. D., secretary Absolute proiii- 



bitiou of iielagic 



of the Zoological Society of London, says that, sealing. 

 in his opinion as a naturalist, "unless proper 

 measures are taken to restrict the indiscriminate 

 capture of the fur seal in the North Pacific the 

 extermination of this species will take place in 

 a few years, as it has already done in the case 

 of other species of the same group in other 

 parts of the world;" that ''it seems to him that 

 the proper way of proceeding would be to stop 

 the killing of females and young of the fur-seal 

 altogether, or as far as possible, and to restrict 

 the killing- of the males to a certain number in 

 each 3^ear;" and that "the only way he can 

 imagine by which these rules could be carried 

 out is by killing the seals only on the islands at 

 the breeding time (at which time it appears that 

 the young males keep apart from the females 

 and old males), and by preventing altogether, as 

 far as possible, the destruction of the fur-seals at 

 all other times and in other places."^ Professor 

 Dall, whose opinion must necessarily be con- 



1 p. L. Sclater, Vol. I, p. 413. See also quotation from Prof. T. H. 

 Huxley, ante, p. 240. 



