SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 113 



must realize that pelagic sealing is responsible, to some extent at least, for the 

 decrease in the number of males, as well as of females. They may speak of this 

 " industry," as they term it, and glorify it as requiring all the courage and skill 

 which caii be brought to bear on it (whatever that may mean). (Section 609.) 

 They may contrast its ''sportsmanlike" character with the "butchery" committed 

 on the islands (section HID); but they can not i'aiJ to perceive that the mode of 

 destruction, which principally deals with gravid females, necessarily strikes at the 

 very foundation of life, and must eventually extinguish the race, because, as they 

 mildly state it, it is unduly destructive (section 633). 



The pelagic sealer nob only kills or attempts to kill the males that he happens to 

 meet, but prevents the birth of males to take their place. He often kills three with 

 one discharge of his ritle, \\/., the mother, the unborn young, and the pup at home; 

 but he docs it in a "sportsmanlike" manner, and he gives the sleeping animal a " fair 

 sporting chance for its life." (Section 610.) In many cases he either misses his 

 object or wounds it and loses it. So that there is by this manly process an utterly 

 useless waste of life, in many cases a waste more or less appalling as the " sportsman" 

 is more or less skillful. How destructive in reality this process is proven to be may 

 be seen from the British commissioners' report under the head of " Proportion of 

 seaK lost " (p. 101, section 603). It must be a consolation to those disposed to extol 

 this kind of sport that while nearly "all the pelagic sealers concur in the opinion 

 that the fur seal is annually becoming more shy and wary at sea," it is certain that 

 "the dexterity of the hunters has been increased pari passu with the wariness of 

 the seals. 7 ' (British commissioners 7 report, section 401.) 



That the number of the seals has been diminished in recent years at a cumulative 

 rate and that such diminution is the consequence of destruction by man is certified by 

 the joint report of all the commissioners. That this human agency is pelagic sealing 

 exclusively, and not the mode, manner, or extent of capture upon the breeding 

 islands, is abundantly clear. 



This follows necessarily from admitted facts. The fur seals being polygamous, 

 and each male sufficient for from 30 to 50 females, and being able to secure to himself 

 that number, it follows that there must be at all times a larger number of super- 

 fluous males, and the killing of them produces no permanent diminution of the 

 number of the herd. On the other hand, the killing of a single breeding female 

 necessarily reduces pro tanto the normal numbers. 



An excessive killing of males might indeed tend toward a decrease if carried to 

 such an extent as not to leave enough for the purpose of effectual impregnation of 

 all the breeding females. The taking from these herds of 100,000 males would not, 

 if that were the only draft allowed, be excessive. This is evident from many con- 

 siderations. 



(a) Those who, like the British commissioners, propose to allow pelagic sealing to 

 such an extent as would involve the annual slaughter of at least 50,000 females in 

 addition to a slaughter of 50,000 young males on the breeding islands can not cer- 

 tainly with the least consistency assert that the capture limited to 100,000 males 

 would be excessive. Nor could they consistently assert, this, even though the pelagic 

 slaughter should be restricted (by some means which no one has yet suggested) to 

 10,000 females. It requires no argument to show that the destruction of even that 

 number would be rapidly disastrous to the herds. 



(fe) And when we turn to the proofs, they are conclusive that prior to the practice 

 upon any considerable scale of pelagic sealing the annual draft of 100,000 young 

 males did not tend to a diminution of numbers. 



(c) Of course, it is easily possible that the indiscriminate slaughter effected by 

 pelagic sealing may soon so far reduce the birth rate as to make it difficult to obtain 

 the annual draft of 100,000 young males. This draft, under such circumstances, 

 would necessarily at once diminish the birth rate, for, the number of females being 

 less, a less number of males would be required. The number of the whole herd 

 might be rapidly diminished by the slaughter of females and the consequent diminu- 

 tion of the birth rate and still'100,000 males continue to be taken for a time without 

 damage. How soon a point would he reached at which so large a draft of males 

 from a constantly diminishing number of hirths would operate to produce an insuf- 

 ficiency of males is a problem which from want of precise knowledge of the relative 

 numbers of the sexes it would be difficult to solve. 



The British commissioners' report upon this subject is as follows: 



"The systematic and persistent hunting and slaughter of the fur seal of the North 

 Pacific, both on the shore and at sea, has naturally and inevitably given rise to cer- 

 tain changes in the habits and mode of life of thai; animal, which are of importance 

 not only in themselves, but as indicating the effects of such pursuit and in show- 

 ing in what particular this is injurious to seal life as a whole. Such changes doubt- 

 less began more than a century ago, and some of them may be traced in the histor- 

 ical precis elsewhere given (section 782 et seq.). It is unfortunately true, however, 

 that the disturbance to the normal course of seal life has become even more serious 



S. Doc. 137, pt. 1 8 



