90 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



International legislation ought to intervene, and without delay, in this case and 

 suggest the means of possibly preventing or at least considerably limiting the pelagic 

 capture and killing of the northern fur seal a destructive and ultimately fatal indus- 

 try, which forcibly recalls the well-known fable of the peasant who killed the hen 

 which laid the golden eggs. The industry derived iroin the rational killing of fur 

 seals, as practiced on the Pribilof Islands, has an economic value which extends far 

 beyond the limits, though vast, of the United States; and it must be remembered 

 that the commercial extermination of the fur seal must also put an end to those 

 industries which are connected with the preparation of the much valued seal-skin fur. 



It is hoth as a naturalist and as an old commissioner of fisheries that I beg to say 

 once more that I most entirely and m-st emphatically agree with you in the conclu- 

 sions and recommendations you come to in your report on the present condition 

 of the fur-seal industry in the Bering Sea, with special reference to the causes of 

 decrease and the measures necessary for the restoration and permanent preservation 

 of that industry, which conclusions and recommendations are fully supported and 

 justified by the facts in the case. 



With much regard, believe me, dear sir, very truly, yours, 



HKNRY 11. (JiGLioi.i. 



REPLY OF DR. RAPHAEL BLANCIIARD. 



Dr. C. HART MERRTAM, 



Jiureau, of Animal Industry, 



Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



SIR AND HONORED COLLEAGUE: I have read with the deepest interest the learned 

 memoir which you have done me the honor to send me concerning the biological his- 

 tory of the fur seal (Callorliinus ursitmn). 



The very precise observations which you made at the Pribilof Islands and the no 

 less certain information based on official statistics which you give on the subject of 

 the capture of the females on the high sea at the moment when they are returning to 

 the Pribilof Islands to give birth to their young, have suggested to you conclusions 

 with which I fully agree. 



I will go even further than you. for I think it urgent not only to rigidly prohibit 

 the taking of the migratory Callorhinus in the open sea, but also to regulate and limit 

 severely the hunting on land of males still too young to have a harem. 



According to your own observation the male does not pair off before the-age of 6 

 or 7 years, and the females give birth to only one pup at, a time. It can be said then 

 that the species increases slowly and multiplies with difficulty. These are unfavor- 

 able conditions, which do not allow it to repair the hecatombs which for several 

 years past have been and are decimating the species. 



By reason of the massacres of which it is the victim this species is advancing rap- 

 idly toward its total and final destruction, following the fatal road on which the 

 Ithytina stelleri, the Monachns tropicaUs, and the Macrork'mns anfjimlirostris have pre- 

 ceded it, to cite only the great mammifers which but recently abounded in the 

 American seas. 



Now. the irremediable destruction of an eminently useful animal species, such as 

 this one, is, to speak plainly, a crime of which we are rendering ourselves guilty 

 toward our descendants. To satisfy our instincts of cupidity we voluntarily exhaust, 

 ftnd that forever, a source of wealth which, properly regulated, ought on the con- 

 trary to contribute to the prosperity of our own generation and of those which will 

 succeed it. 



When we live on our capital we can undoubtedly lead a gay and extravagant life: 

 but how long does this foolish extravagance last? And what is its to-morrow f 

 inextricable poverty. On the other hand, in causing our capital to be properly pro- 

 ductive we draw from it constantly a splendid income, which does not, perhaps, give 

 the large means dreamed of, but at least assures an honorable competency, to which 

 the wise man knows how to accommodate himself. By prucb nt ventures or by a 

 well-regulated economy he can even increase progressively his inheritance and leave 

 to his children a greater fortune thau he had himself received from his parents. It 

 is evidently the same with the question which occupies us, and it is for our gener- 

 ation an imperious duty to prevent the destruction of the fur seal, to regulate 

 strictly its capture in a word, to perpetuate this source of wealth and to bequeath 

 it to our descendants. 



To these considerations of an economic character I will add another of a nature 

 purely sentimental. It is not without profound sadness that the naturalist sees a 

 large number of animal species disappear, the destruction of which this century will 

 Bave seen accomplished. When our seas are no longer inhabited by the cetacea and 

 the great pinnipeds, when the air is no longer furrowed in all directions by little 



