DRS. A. NEHRING, R. COLLETT AND G. HARTLAUB. 421 



tion of the Xorth American Le^'ation in this city, and, in reply, I send 

 you a statement of my views with regard to its contents. 



What you say concerning' the mode of life, and especially the annual 

 migrations of the fur-seal {Callorhinus ?7rsm«s), whose breeding places 

 are the Pribilof Islands, is so clear and convincing, and harmonizes so 

 perfectly with what has been observed by other reliable scientists, that I 

 fully agree with your deductions. I am, like yourself, of the opinion 

 that the remarkable decrease of fur seals on the rookeries of the Pribi- 

 lof Islands, which has, of late years, become more and more evident, is 

 to be attributed mainly, or perhaps exclusively, to the unreasonable 

 destruction caused by the sealers who ply their avocation in the oj)en 

 sea. The only rational method of taking the fur seal, and the only one 

 that is not likely to result in the extermination of this valuable animal, 

 is the one which has hitherto been employed on the Pribilof Islands 

 under the supervision of the Government. Any other method of taking 

 the northern fur seal should, in my opinion, be prohibited by interna- 

 tional agreement. I should, at furthest, approve a local pursuit of the 

 fur seal, where it is destructive of the fisheries in its southern winter 

 quarters. I regard pelagic fur-sealing as very unwise; it must soon 

 lead to a decrease, bordering on extermination, of the fur-seal. 

 With great respect, 



Prof. Dr. Alfred Kehring, 

 Professor of Zoology in the Royal Agricultural College of Berlin. 



Reply of Prof. Robert Collett, of the Zoological Museum of the University of Christiania- 



Norway. 



Christiania, April 22, 1892. 



My Dear Sir: It would be a very easy reply to your highly inter 

 esting treatise of the fur seal, whicli you have been kind enough to 

 send us, when I only answered you that I agree with you entirely in 

 all i)oints. No doubt it would be the greatest value for the rookeries 

 on the Prybilof Island, as well as for'the preservation of the existence 

 of the sei)l, if it would be possible to stop the sealing at sea at all. 

 But that will no doubt be very difficult, when so many nations partake 

 in the sealing and how that is to go about I can not know. My own 

 countrymen are killing every year many thousands of seals and cysto 

 phorcc on the ice barrier between Spitzbergen and Greenland, but 

 never females with young; either are the old ones caught, or, and that 

 is the greatest number, the young seals. But there is a close time, 

 accepted by the difterent nations, just to prohibit the killing of the 

 females with young. Perhaps a similar close-time could be accepted in 

 the Bering Sea, but that is a question about which I can not have any 

 opinion. 



Many thanks for the paper. 

 Yours, very truly, 



E. Collett. 



Reply of Dr. Custav Hartlaub, of Bremen, Germany. 



Bremen, Apr. 23, ^92. 

 Hcrrn C. Hart Merriam: 



Geehrter Herr: Ich habe Ihr vortreffliches Memoire fiber den 

 Northern Fur Seal mit dem lebhaftesten Interesse gelesen und wieder 



