DRIVING NOT A FACTOR IN THE DECLINE. 



THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF SEXUAL INJURY. 



133 



There remains, then, but one further point, namely, the possibility of the male 

 seal becoming sexually injured as a result of driving while still retaining his physical 

 vigor. The organs of generation in the male fur seal are carried like those of the 

 dog or similar animals, and owing to the peculiar character of the hind legs of the 

 seal they appear to be in an exposed and dangerous position. It would seem as 

 if the testes must come in actual contact with the ground when the animal is in 

 motion. A hasty observation might lead to the supposition that to force an animal 

 in this condition to travel several miles over rocks and stones would produce direct 

 injury to these organs. Whether or not this is the source of Mr. Elliott's theory of 

 the impairment of the virility of the bulls through overdriving we do not know, but 

 if this did not suggest the theory it is hard to understand what did. 



VOLUNTARY MOVEMENTS OF THE MALES. 



The violent voluntary movements of the adult bulls on the rocky floors of their 

 breeding grounds would be sufficient answer to this contention. No efforts required 

 of the seals on the drives are any harder than those they undergo of their own 

 accord. But without relying upon this, the investigations of the past two seasons 

 show that the testes of the male seal are under direct control of the animal, and when 

 he is in motion are drawn up into the body, where they are absolutely protected. 1 

 Thus there is no possibility for direct injury to the generative organs of the male 

 from driving. 



DRIVING NOT A FACTOR IN THE DECLINE. 



Therefore, after a full consideration of the subject of driving in all its bearings, 

 we are inevitably brought to the conclusion that it is not and has not been a factor 

 in the decline of the herd. It would be possible under thoughtless or unfeeling 

 management to make the operation the source of great physical suffering to the 

 animals concerned, and the driving should be, as it evidently is, always under humane 

 and intelligent supervision. The interests of the herd, however, are not concerned 

 in the presence or absence of such care. The treatment of the bachelors on the drives 

 and killing grounds of St. Paul Island no more affects the breeding rookeries than 

 would inhuman treatment of horses on the street-car lines of San Francisco affect the 

 breeding herd of the Palo Alto stock farm. 



It is not necessary for us to consider certain alleged sources of injury to the 

 herd through stampedes occasioned by fright on the rookeries or through raids by 

 seal poachers. These and many other more or less imaginary causes of injury to 

 the herd were used to support and strengthen the main contention of the British 

 case before the Paris Arbitration that land killing was the cause of decline. But 

 these causes, if they ever actually existed, could produce only temporary results, as 

 they were themselves necessarily temporary in their nature and action. The decline 

 of the herd, to whatever it may be due, has been constant, and for it must be sought 

 a permanent cause. 



1 See observations in the Daily Journal under date of October 11 and 19, 1897. 



