SEAL LIFE ON THE PUIIJILOF ISLANDS. 95 



altogether harmonious; 'nit if it were composed of sensible men they would, sooner 

 or later, struggle out into a modus vivendi. tor. after all, it is as ruiich the Canadian 

 interest that the. I'rihilof fisheries should be preserved as it is the United States inter- 

 est that the seals should not he extirpated in Bering Sea and the Northwest Pacific. 



(12) In such a case as this I do nor believe that the enforcement of a close time, 

 either in Bering Sea or on the Northwest coast, would he of any practical utility 

 unless the fishing is absolutely prohibited (which I take to he out of the question). 

 It must be permitted while the seals are in the sea; and if it is permitted, there is 

 no limit to the destruction which may be effected. 



Numerous as the seals may be, they area trille compared with herring schools and 

 cod walls, and human agency is relatively a far more important factor in destruction 

 in their case than in that of herrings and cod. tip to this time fishing has made no 

 sensible impression on the great herring and cod fisheries; but it has been easy to 

 extirpate seal fisheries. 



(13) Finally, I venture to remark that there are only two alternative courses 

 worth pursuing. 



One is to let the fur seals be extirpated. Mankind will not suffer much if the 

 ladies are obliged to do without seal-skin jackets, and the fraction of the English, 

 Canadian, aut American population which lives on the seal skin industry will be no 

 worse on" than the vastly gi eater multitude who have had to suffer for the vagaries 

 of lashion times out of number. Certainly, if the seals are to be a source of constant 

 bickering between two nations, the sooner they are abolished the better. 



The other course is to tread clown all merely personal and trade interest in pursuit 

 of an a IT ngement that will work and be fair all round, and to sink all the stupidi- 

 ties of national vanity and political sell-seeking along with them. 



There is a great deal too much of all these undeniable elements apparent in the 

 documents which I have been studying. 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



APKIL 25, 1892. 



AFFIDAVIT BY DR. PHILIP LUTLEY SCLATER. 



Philip Lutley Sclater, Ph. D., secretary of the Zoological Society of London, being 

 duly sworn, doth depose and say that in his opinion as a naturalist: 



(1) Unless proper measures are laken to restrict the indiscriminate eaptnre of the 

 fur seal in the North Pacific he is of opinion that the extermination of this species 

 will take place in a few years, as it has already done in the case of other species of 

 the same group in other parts of the world. 



(2) It seems to him that the proper way of proceeding would be to stop the kill- 

 ing of females and young of the fur seal altogether or as far as possible, and to 

 restrict the killing of the males to a certain number in each year. 



(3) The only way he can imagine by which these rules could be carried out is by 

 the killing the seals only in the islands at the breeding time (at which time it 

 appears that the young males keep apart from the females and old males) and by 

 preventing altogether, as far as possible, the destruction of the fur seals at all other 

 times and in other places. 



PHILIP LUTLEY SCLATER, Ph. D., F. E. S. 



CITY OF WASHINGTON, District of Columbia, ss: 



C. H. Townsend, being duly sworn, deposes and says; 



I am 33 jears of age. and my profession is thit of a naturalist. I am attached to 

 the United States Fish Commission steamer Albatross, with which Commission I have 

 been connected for nine years. Occupying the position of resident naturalist on that 

 v< ssel, as I did, I have collected constantly during this period and have hunted with 

 all kinds of firearms and under various conditions. I have made seven voyages to 

 Alaska. 



I visited the Pribilof Islands for the first time in 1885, spending the months of June 

 and September thereon in making collections of natural-history specimens, includ- 

 ing those, of the fur seal, of which I brought down twenty. In the year 1891 1 again 

 visited the Island of St. Paul, arriving there July 28 and remaining there about ten 

 days. The British commissioners were on the island at that. time. I made frequent 

 observations as to the conditions of the rookeries during this period. Early in the 

 summer of 1892 I visited, at the request of the United States Government, Guade- 

 lope Island, for the purpose of acquainting myself with seal life there and of obtainr 

 ing skulls of the fur seals which formerly frequented those regions. Later in 1892 J 

 once more visited the Island of St. Paul, arriving there June 30. I was there on the 



