VI PBEFACE. 



sphere, or at least some of them, against the wanton and 

 unseasonable acts committed by unrestrained traders ; and 

 thus not only to prevent the inevitable extermination of 

 this valuable group, but to utilize their eminently beneficial 

 qualities into a methodical and profitable industry. 



Keeping steadily in view these two objects, whose impor- 

 tance, I trust, will bear me out in deviating from my original 

 intention in the order of the issue of publication, I have 

 endeavoured firstly ; to interest the youthful mind with 

 selections of well authenticated anecdotes of the general 

 habits of these peculiar animals, accompanied, however, by 

 those drier details of structural characters, essentially 

 requisite to assist the more advanced and thoughtful 

 student to a better understanding of the generic distinc- 

 tions, and to aid him as a work of reference, or descriptive 

 catalogue, should he be disposed in after-life to prose- 

 cute his researches in this difficult and imperfectly under- 

 stood branch of Zoology, and secondly; by devoting 

 as much space as my limits would permit to the considera- 

 tion of the animals whose products are of such commer- 

 cial value to man, and whose extinction would so seriously 

 affect his interests, to point out the pressing necessity that 

 exists for devising the means of protection for the Fur Seals 

 and the Sperm and Right Whales of the Southern Ocean. 



To evidence what great results may be effected by con- 

 siderate forethought, I refer the reader to pages 8 to 13 of 

 this treatise, where he will see that, under the fostering care 

 of the United States Government, the Northern Fur Seals 

 of commerce, which but a few years ago were nearly 



