CHAPTER X. 



ALLEGED POSSIBLE CHANGE OF HABITS. 



MIGRATION TO COMMANDER ISLANDS. 



It may be worth while here to note certain supposed possible changes of habits 

 on the part of the fur seals as a result of the interference of mau. Much has been 

 said at the Paris Tribunal and elsewhere regarding the danger of driving the seals 

 from their haunts on the Pribilof Islands to seek other shores. There is no such 

 possibility. 



It has been a tradition in the history of the fur seals that the Commander Islands 

 were originally occupied by seals which had abandoned the Pribilof Islands. This 

 tradition has not the slighest foundation. Doubtless all came centuries ago from one 

 parent stock, but as the two herds exist to-day they are distinct races or species and 

 do not intermingle in any way. Notwithstanding this, it has within recent times been 

 thought possible that under exceptional circumstances we might expect an exodus of 

 seals from the Pribilof Islands to the Eussian islands. Even so late as the present 

 year it has been asserted that Pribilof seals were taken on the Asiatic side, the 

 alleged cause of their going there being the fact that they had been branded on their 

 native rookeries. These stories are all very absurd and rest upon no basis of fact or 

 knowledge, but, in view of the persistency with which they have been urged, it will 

 not be out of place to consider the habits of the animals in the light of such possible 

 results. 



THE FIXED HABITS OF THE SEALS. 



The habits of the fur seal are strongly fixed. From the natural ruthless 

 destruction of all seals in which the geographical instinct or the instincts of feeding 

 and reproduction are defective results the extreme perfection of the few instincts 

 which the animal possesses. The life processes of the fur seal are as perfect as 

 clockwork, but its grade of intelligence is low. Its range of choice in action is very 

 slight. It is a wonderful automaton, and the stress of the migrations will always 

 keep it so. 



THE SEAL'S' LOW INTELLIGENCE. 



By intellect or intelligence in this sense is meant the power to choose among 

 different possible courses of action. External influences and internal impulses 

 produce certain impressions on the nervous system of the animal. By the automatic 

 instinct the response which follows is directly related to the cause, and there is no 

 choice among responses. So much influence, so much rebound. By the operations 

 of instinct each individual in given conditions will act just as any other individual 

 will. Intellect, however, implies individuality. One animal will choose to do this, 

 another that, adapting action to certain needs and circumstances. A fur seal will do 

 what its ancestors have had to do to perfection. If he is forced to do anything else 

 he is dazed and stupid. 

 134 



