PROPOSED INTERNATIONAL MEASURES, 1887-'88. 173 



The male seals, or bulls, as tliey are commonly called, require little 

 food wliile ou tlie islands, where they reuiaiu guarding: their harems, 

 watcliing the rookeries, and sustaining- existence on the large amount 

 of blubber which they have secreted beneath their skins and which is 

 gradually absorbed during the five or six succeeding mouths. 



Moreover, it is impossible to distinguish tlie male from the female 

 seals in the Avater, or pregnant females from those that are not so. 

 When the animals are killed in the water with firearms many sink at 

 once and are never recovered, and some authorities state that Jiot more 

 than one out of three of those so slaughtered is ever secured. This 

 may, however, be an overestimate of the number lost. 



It is thus apparent that to permit the destruction of the seals by the 

 use of firearms, nets, or other mischievous means in Bering Sea would 

 result in the speedy extermination of the race. There ap])ears to be no 

 difference of opinion on this subject among experts. And the fact is so 

 clearly and forcibly stated in the report of the inspector of fisheries for 

 British Columbia of the 31st of December, 1886, that I will quote there- 

 from the following pertinent i^assage: 



There were killed this year,, so far, from 40,000 to 50,000 fur seals, whicli have been 

 taken by schooners from Sau Fr;inciseo and V^ietoria. The greater number were 

 killinl ill Behrinj^ Sea, and were nearly all cows or female seals. This enormous catch, 

 with the increase wliich will take place when the vessels fitting up every year are 

 ready, will, I am afraid, soon dcplede our fur-seal fishery, and it is a great pity that 

 such a valuable industry could not in some way be protected. (Report of Tlioraas 

 Mowat, ius])ector of fisheries for British Columbia; Sessional Papers, Vol. 15, No. 

 16, p. 268; Ottawa, 1887.) 



The only way of obviating the lamentable result above predicted ap- 

 pears to be by the United States, Great Britain, and other interested 

 powers taking concerted action to prevefit their citizens or subjects 

 from killing fur seals with firearms, or other destructive weapons, north 

 of 50° of north latitude, and between 160° of longitude west and 170° 

 of longitude east from (xreenwich, during the period intervening be- 

 tween April 15 and November 1. To i)revent tlie killing within a 

 marine belt of 40 or 50 miles from the islands during that period would 

 be inett'ectual as a preservative measure. This would clearly be so 

 during the approach of the seals to the islands. And after their ar- 

 rival there such a limit of |)rotection would also be insufficient, since 

 the ra])id progress of the seals through the water enables them to go 

 great distances from the islands in so short a time that it has been cal- 

 culated that an ordinary seal (;ould go to the Aleutian Islands and 

 back, in all a distance of 300 or 400 miles, in less than two days. 



On the I'libilot Islands themselves, Avhere the killing is at present 

 under the direction of the Alaska Commercial Company, which by the 

 terms of its contract is not permitted to take over 100,000 skins a year, 

 no females, pups, or old bulls are ever kilh^d, and thus the breeding of 

 the animals is not interfered with. The old bulls are the first to reach 

 the islands, where they await the coming of the fefnales. As the young 

 bulls arrive they are driven away by the old bulls to the sandy part of 

 the islands, by themselves. And these are the animals that are driven 

 inland and there killed by clubbing, so that the skins are not perforated, 

 and discrifnination is exercised in each case. 



That the extermination of the fur seals must soon take place unless 

 they are protected from destruction in Behring Sea is shown by the 

 fate of the animal in other parts of the world, in the absence of concerted 

 actios! among the nations interested for its preservati(m. Formerly 

 many thousands of seals were obtained annually from the South Pacific 

 Islands, and fi-om the coasts of Chile and South^Africa. They were also 



