410 ARTICLE BY DR. J. A. ALLEN. 



make lonjj,' excursions for food, and are thus again here much more ex- 

 posed to tlie attacks of the pelagic hunter tlian the males. 



13. From the foregoing summary it is evident that the decline in the 



number of the killable seals at the Pribilof rookeries 

 la^cTeailng"*^ *° ^^' ^^^^^ ^he immense decrease in the total number of seals 



on the Pribilof Islands are not due to any change in the 

 management of the seal herd at the islands, but to the direct and un- 

 questionably deleterious eftects of i)elagic sealing. At the islands the 

 killing is regulated with reference to the inimber of killable seals on 

 the rookeries ; the designated quota is limited to nonbreeding young- 

 males, and every seal killed is iitilized. The killing, as thus regulated, 

 does not impair the productiveness of the rookeries. In pelagic sealing 

 the slaughter is indiscriminate and unlimited, and a large proportion 

 of the seals killed are lost. The catch also consists almost wholly of 

 breeding fenniles, which at the time of capture are either heavy with 

 young or have young on the rookeries depending upon them for suste- 

 nance. Thus two or more seals are destroyed to every one utilized and 

 nearly all are drawn from the class on which the very existence of the 

 seal herd depends. 



14. The results of pelagic sealing may be thus summarized: (1) The 



immense reduction f)f the herd at the Pribilof Islands 

 seaiiiTg^^' "*■ P^'-'^s'^ and its threatened annihilation. (2) The extermina- 

 tion of the I'ril)ilof herd will be practically accomplished 

 within a few years if pelagic sealing is continued. (3) There will soon 

 be too few seals left in the iSTorth Pacific- and Bering Sea to render 

 pelagic sealing commercially protital)le. (4) The harm already done 

 can not be repaired in years, even if all sealing, whether pelagic or at 

 the islands, be strictly prohibited for a considerable i)eriod. 



