SEAL LIFE OX THE J'KIHILOK ISLANDS. f> 7 



The British Bering Sea commissioners in this connection stated: 



The fnr of the female is equally good with that of the male, and under the condi- 

 tions under which the hunting is carried on, there is room lor no sentimental eonsid- 

 eiations in favor of either sex. 



I was informed by the Treasury agent and others who had wintered 

 on the seal islands that the winter of 18!>3-9A had been one of unusual 

 severity, rigor, and length, and that the seals had been much later in 

 hauling out than for many years past. 



This happens occasionally, for whenever it is unusually cold during* the 

 spring and early summer months, and the ice hangs around the islands 

 till the latter end of May or early Julie, the seals will not or can not 

 haul out until passages are made and the rocks and beach cleared of 

 ice; all of which had to be done last season. 



From the same source I also learned that never before, since the 

 United States owned the islands, were seals so few upon the rookeries 

 during the killing season of June and July, and that the 20,000 killa- 

 bles allowed to betaken this year were not to be found unless the 

 standard weight and size should be lowered by the lessees and smaller 

 seals taken. As the lessees have not taken any skins weighing less 

 than 7 pounds, and have killed some 10,000 first-class seals, 1 have no 

 doubt of their being able to get 20,000 had they chosen to take 4,000 

 skins weighing from 5 to 6 pounds each. 



This opens up a question of the utmost importance to our Govern- 

 ment, for if we can not tind 20,000 young male seals on the seal islands, 

 whose skins will weigh from 7 to 12 pounds each, after a modus vivendi, 

 and a general rest of nearly four years, it is most assuredly time for us 

 to search for the cause of the steady decrease of the fur-seal herd. 



To all those whose long and practical experience on the islands and 

 among the seals gives them a right to be heard, the explanation is not- 

 hard, but unfortunately, because of many clashing interests, there has 

 been a glamor of secrecy and sacreduess thrown around the fur seal 

 question, by and through which plain, practical, business men have 

 been debarred from expressing an opinion, or, having dared to express 

 one, have been tabooed by interested parties. For years the cause of 

 the decrease in the seal herd has been discussed with unabated vigor; 

 so-called improved methods of all sorts have been suggested, and a 

 few of them tried ; and, finally, when the question assumed international 

 proportions, arbitration was resorted to in hopes of forever settling a 

 vexed question and of saving from total extinction the remnants of our 

 seal herd that had, only a few years ago, been numbered by the millions 

 and valued at nearly |1<H), 000,000. 



In spite of all that has been done thus far, however, the seal herd is 

 rapidly decreasing, and in the very nature of things must continue to 

 decrease so long as scores of ships and thousands of men are permitted 

 to hunt them in the open sea and kill them without regard to age, sex, 

 or condition. 



There is no more mystery about the cause of the decrease and destruc- 

 tion of the fur-seal herd than there would be about the decrease of a 

 herd of cattle on the plains of Colorado if the owner should continue to 

 sell or kill, or allow someone else to sell or kill, his breeding cows for a 

 series of years, or until they were all gone. 



Twice since the discovery of the seal islands and during Russian 

 occupation have the seals been almost exterminated because of the 

 indiscriminate slaughter of the female, or mother seal, for it is well 

 known that the Russians continued to slaughter everything on the 



