DR. KAPHAEL BLAIS CHARD. 427 



se perdra pas dans le desert. Eii particulier, j'ai la convictiou que les 

 luesures tres sages que vous ]M'oposez, eii vue de preserver d'uue de- 

 structiou imininente le GaUorhinus ursinus, seront soumises a uue com- 

 mission iuteriiatiouale, qui les ratifiera et leur donuera force de loi. 



Veuillez agreer, Monsieur et honore collegue, I'expression des mes 

 sentiments les plus distingues. 



Dr. E.APHAEL Blanchard, 

 Frofesseur agrege a la Faeulte de Medt'cine de Paris, 

 Secretaire general de la Societe Zoologique de France. 



[Translatiou.] 



Paris, May 3, 1892. 

 Dr. C. Hart Merriam, 



Bureau of Animal Industry, 



Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. G.: 

 Sir and Honored Colleague: I have read with the deepest inter- 

 est the learned memoir which you have done me the honor to send me 

 concerning the biological history of the fur seal {Gallorhinus Ursinus). 

 The very precise observations which you made at the Pribilof Is- 

 lands, and the no less exact information, based on official statistics, 

 which you give on the subject of the capture of the females on the high 

 sea at the moment when they are returning to the Pribilof Islands to 

 give birth to their young, have suggested to you conclusions with which 

 1 fully agree. 



I will go even further than you, for 1 think it urgent not only to 

 rigidly prohibit the taking of the migratory Callorhinus in the open 

 sea, but also to regulate and limit severely the hunting on land of males 

 still too young to have a harem. 



According to your own observations the male does not pair off before 

 the age of G or 7 years and the female gives birth to only one pup at a 

 time. It can be said, then, that the species increases slowly and mul- 

 tiplies with difiSculty. These are unfavorable conditions, which do 

 not allow it to repair the hecatombs Avhich for several yesa-s past have 

 been and are decimating the species. 



By reason of the massacres of which it is the victim, this species is 

 advancing rapidly toward its total and final destruction, following 

 the fiital road on which the Rhytina Stelleri, the Monachus tropicalis, 

 and the Macrorhinus angustirostris have x>receded it, to cite only the 

 great mammifers which but recently abounded in the American seas. 

 Now, the irremediable destruction of an eminently useful animal 

 species, such as this one, is, to speak plainly, a crime of which we are 

 rendering ourselves guilty towards our descendants. To satisfy our in- 

 stincts of cupidity we voluntarily exhaust, and that forever, a source 

 of wealth, which, properly regulated, ought, on the contrary, to contrib- 

 ute to the prosperity of our "own generation and of those which will 

 succeed it. 



When we live on our capital we can undoubtedly lead a gay and ex- 

 travagant life; but how long does this foolish extravagance last? And 

 what is its to-morrow? Inextricable poverty. On the other hand, in 

 causing our capital to be ])roperly iDroductive, we draw from it con- 

 stantly a splendid income, whicli does not, perhaps, give the large means 

 dreamed of, but at least assures an honorable competency, to which 

 the wise man knows how to accommodate himself. By prudent ventures 

 or by a well-regulated economy he can even increase progressively his 

 inheritance and leave to his children a gTcater fortune than he had 



