THE SOUTHERN SEA-LION 697 



away with a sharp knife, thus causing the long hairs, which are deeper rooted than 

 the woolly under-fur, to fall out. 



At the close of the last and during the early part of the present cen- 

 tury fur-seals existed in countless numbers in many parts of the 

 world; but human greed and folly have succeeded in so reducing their numbers in 

 most regions that their pursuit is no longer profitable. Fortunately, however, both 

 for science and for commerce, the seal rookeries of the Pribilof islands in Behring 

 Sea have been placed under such restrictions as to render the annual slaughter com- 

 pensated by the number of births. As an indication of the hosts of fur-seals for- 

 merly existing in various parts of the world, we may quote some figures given by 

 Mr. Allen. Thus it is stated that in the year 1798 Captain Fanning, of the ship 

 Betsy of New York, after obtaining a full cargo of skins from the island of Musa- 

 pura, on the Chilian coast, estimated the number of fur-seals remaining on the 

 island at from 500,000 to 700,000; and it appears that but little less than a million 

 skins were subsequently taken from the same locality. Fur-seals were still found 

 on the Chilian coast in 1815. From the Georgian islands, at the extremity of 

 South America, no less than 112,000 fur-seals are reported to have been taken in 

 the year 1800, of which 57,000 were obtained by one American vessel. About this 

 date the discovery of fur-seals in Australia was announced; and in 1804 a single 

 ship obtained 74,000 skins. Large numbers were also taken about the same period 

 on Prince Edward's islands, lying a few hundred miles to the southeastward of the 

 Cape of Good Hope. Again, between the years 1820 and 1821, more than 300,000 

 skins were taken from the South Shetland islands alone; while it is estimated that 

 at least 100,000 young seals were left to perish miserably, owing to the destruction 

 of their mothers. In 1814 and 1815 the number of skins exported from Antipodes 

 island, off the coast of New South Wales, was upward of 400,000, of which, it is 

 said, no less than one-fourth were spoiled owing to bad curing, and on arrival in Eu- 

 rope were sold as manure. As early, however, as the year 1830, the number of fur- 

 seals in the southern seas had been so greatly diminished that vessels generally 

 made losing voyages; and at the present day such a voyage partakes largely of the 

 nature of a lottery. During the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger, the late Professor 

 Moseley states that a considerable number of fur-seals were observed about Kergue- 

 len Land; two schooners having obtained seventy in one day, and twenty in 

 another. The number of skins taken in the Pribilof islands will be referred to 

 later on; but it may be mentioned that at the present time, according to Mr. F. A. 

 Lucas, the annual slaughter of fur-seals throughout the world averages 185,000, 

 while that of hair-seals reaches the enormous number of 875,000. 



THE SOUTHERN SEA-LION (Otaria jubata) 



The southern or Patagonian sea-lion, of which a group is represented in the 

 illustration on p. 694, is a hair-seal, and differs in certain respects both externally 

 and internally from all the other species. It inhabits the Galapagos islands, and 

 the coasts of South America from Peru and Chili on the Pacific side, and from the 



