SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



acquainted intimately with seal lif-, an- as far in advance of those of Professor 

 Elliott, from whom Lord ilannen quotes with much satisfaction, as Napoleon was in 

 advance of the Sioux chieftain. Sitting Bull, as a military genius. 



1 will presently quote something further about fur seals trom Mr. Peroii. 



I kiiow Mr. Elliott, whom the British (Joverniuent has dubbed " professor." I have 

 respect for his character and sprightliness. He is a painter in water colors of no 

 mean pretensions, but his use of color does not stop with his canvas. It enters into 

 all he savs, and makes him too vivid an enthusiast, for a sale reliance on questions of 

 measurements, statistics, and cold facts. Mr. Elliott was out on the Pribilof Islands 

 on the 10th of July, 181K). taking lield notes, which, to he of any value, should be free 

 from all romantic conjecture. 1 he following is one of his highly colored extracts from 

 his report of that day : 



In company with Mr. (ioH'and Dr. Lutz I made my plotting of the breeding seals 

 as they lay on the Reef and (iarbotch to-day. Here at the very height of the breed- 

 ing season, when the masses were most compact and uniform in their distribution in 

 1872-1874, I find the animals as they lay to-day, scattered over twice and thrice as 

 much ground, as a rule, as the same number would occupy in 1872 scattered because 

 the virile bulls are so few in number and the service which they render so delayed or 

 impotent. In other words, the cows are restless; not being served when in heat, 

 they seek other bulls by hauling out in green jagged points of massing (as is shown 

 by the chart) up from tl>eir lauding belts. This unnatural action of the cows, or 

 rather unwonted movement, has caused the pups a ready to form small pods every- 

 where, even where the cows are most abundant, which shadows to me the truth of 

 the fact that in five days or a week from date the scattering completely of the rook- 

 ery organization will be thoroughly done It did not take place until the 20th to- 

 the 25th of July, 1872. In 1872 these, cows were promptly met with the service which 

 they craved on the rookery ground. The scattering of these old bulls to-day over so- 

 large an area is due to extreme feebleness and combined in many cases to a recollec- 

 tion of no distant day when they had previously hauled thus far out on this very 

 ground surrounded by bareness, though all is vacant and semi-grass grown under 

 and around them now." (hissenting opinions, Harlan and Morgan, pp. 106, 109.) 



It is assumed throughout the report of the British commissioners that pelagic seal- 

 ing is not necessarily destructive, and that, under regulation, the prosecution of it 

 need not involve the extermination of the herds. This assumption and the evidence 

 bearing upon it will be elsewhere particularly treated in what we may have to say 

 upon the subject of regulations. It will there be shown that it is not only destructive 

 in its tendency, but that, if permitted, it will complete the work of piratical exter- 

 mination in a very short period of time. But so far as it is asserted that a restricted 

 and regulated pelagic sealing is consistent with the moral laws of nature and should 

 be allowed, the argument has a bearing upon the claim of the United States of a 

 property interest, and should be briefly considered here. Let it be clearly under- 

 stood, then, just what pelagic sealing is, however restricted or regulated. And we 

 shall now describe it by those features of it which are not disputed or disputable. 



We pass by the shocking cruelty and inhumanity, with its sickening details of 

 bleating and crying offspring falling upon the decks from the bellies of mothers- 

 as they are ripped open, and of white milk flowing in streams mingled with blood. 

 These enormities which, if attempted within the territory of a civilized State, would 

 speedily be made the subjects of criminal punishment, are, not relevant, or are less 

 relevant, in the discussion of the mere question of property. 



It is not contended that in pelagic sealing (1) there can be any selective killing, 

 or (2) that a great excess of females over males is not slain, or (S) that a great num- 

 ber of victims perish from wounds without being recovered, or (4) that in most cases 

 the females killed are not either heavy with young or nursing mothers, or (5) that 

 each and every of these incidents can not be avoided by the selective killing which 

 is practiced on the breeding islands. We do not stop to discuss the idle questions 

 whether this form of slaughter will actually exterminate the herds or how long it 

 may take to complete the destruction. It is enough for the present purpose to say 

 that it is simple destruction. It is destructive because it does not make or aim to 

 make its draft upon the increase, which consists of the superfluous males, but, by 

 taking females, striken directly at the stock, and strikes at the stock in the most 

 damaging \\ a y, by destroying unborn and newly boru pups, together with their 

 mothers. Whoever undertakes to set up a moral right to prosecute this mode of 

 slaughter on the ground that it will not necessarily result in complete destruction 

 must maintain that while it maybe against the law of nature to work complete 

 destruction, it is yet lawful to destroy. Hut what the law of nature forbids is any 

 destruction at all unless it is necessary. To destroy a little and to destroy much 

 are the same crimes. 



I 1 there were even something less than a right, or rather some low degree of right 

 for nothing other than rights can be taken notice of here some mere convenience, 

 it might be worthy of consideration; but there is none. It can not even be said that 

 pelagic sealing may furnish to the world a seal skin at a lower price. Nothing can 



