190 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



THE SKIN OF A FEMALE TO BE CONTRABAND. 



As to ways and means for accomplishing the desired end we have nothing- to 

 offer. We are glad to be able to call attention to the action of our Government in the 

 passage of the bill forbidding the citizens of the United States to engage in pelagic 

 sealing. We may suggest that should Great Britain enact and enforce a similar law 

 this would end the matter. If the fur-seal herd is to be preserved its breeding females 

 must be protected from slaughter. To make the skin of a female fur seal a contraband 

 article, subject to seizure and confiscation when brought into a port of a civilized 

 nation, will protect her from slaughter. 



THE PROPOSED EXTERMINATION BY SLAUGHTER ON THE ROOKERIES. 



We have had occasion, in the preliminary reports of the commission, to denounce 

 a method of settling the fur-seal question, which has already received more attention 

 than it merits, namely, the extinction of the herd by the slaughter of the animals on 

 their breeding grounds. We trust that the day is passed when such a proposition 

 would be tolerated. The measure is an abominable one, without a single redeeming 

 feature. It would condense into one wholesale act all the objectionable features in 

 pelagic sealing, against which we, as a nation, have been from the first contending; 

 and it would lodge upon us alone and for all time the odium for the extermination by 

 a barbarous method of a noble race of animals. The United States can not afford to 

 shirk her responsibility for the protection and preservation of the fur seals by any 

 such makeshift. It remains for the two great nations interested in the welfare of the 

 fur-seal herd, and under obligation to look after that welfare, to find a way of settling 

 the problem that shall be effective and honorable. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FUR-SEAL HERD. 



We have already had occasion to refer to the importance of the fur-seal herd as 

 a property investment, adding to the wealth and comfort of mankind. Great Britain 

 and the United States both share in the profits to be derived from the legitimate 

 product of the herd, the former through the interests of her citizens in the preparation 

 of the seal skins for the market, the latter through the revenue she derives under her 

 lease. 



In its present condition the fur-seal herd is sadly reduced. Under the expensive 

 conditions of protection necessitated by the existence of pelagic sealing the profits of 

 its product on land are eaten up. But even now, if the present expensive patrol could 

 be waived, the return from the herd would be by no means insignificant. Under the 

 quota of 1897 the revenue to the Government can not be far from $250,000, 5 per cent 

 on an investment of $5,000,000. 



A STRONG- NUCLEUS REMAINS. 



The nucleus of the herd which remains is strong and vigorous. Under proper- 

 conditions it will increase, and in fifteen or twenty years should equal its maximum 

 condition. This would mean, under the present lease of the islands, a revenue in tax 

 alone of $1,000,000 annually. But with proper protection the product of the herd 

 from the start would increase and grow as the herd grows, becoming greater each 

 year, until normal conditions were again reached. 



