320 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



PAST AND FUTURE OF THE FUR SEAL. ' 



BY JOSEPH STANLEY-BROWN. 



There are but two groups of fur seals to furnish to the world its 

 supply of seal skins, the fur seal of the north and the fur seal of the 

 south. 



When Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe in 1577-1580 the 

 Arctocephalus, or southern fur seal, was to be found at not less than 

 thirty localities, and their numbers aggregated millions. To-day the 

 contributions of these southern waters are from three resorts, and do 

 not usually reach 15,000 skins annually. 



When Vitus Bering, in 1741, was wrecked upon the Commander 

 Islands, off the coast of Kamchatka, and Pribilof searched out, in 

 1786-87, the group of islands in Bering Sea that bears his name, there 

 were discovered, not only the chief breeding grounds of the northern 

 fur seal, Caltorhinus ursinus^ but some of the most superb seal rookeries 

 the world has ever known. It is questionable if mortal vision ever 

 rested upon more magnificent displays of amphibian life than were to 

 be seen on the island of St. Paul at the time of its discovery. To-day 

 these subarctic resorts are prostrate; their glory also has departed, and 

 they furnish a home for but a mere remnant of the seals that formerly 

 swarmed in myriads along their rocky shores. 



For two years the hopes of thoughtful persons were high, that through 

 the medium of international negotiations and the deliberations of wise 

 and able men the safety of the fur seal would be at last secured. To-day, 

 when the decision of the Paris Tribunal is common property, we find 

 public opinion divided on the question as to whether the practical appli- 

 cation of the decision will preserve the fur seal as a commercial com- 

 modity. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEAL. 



The condition of affairs thus briefly outlined is all the more deplorable 

 when we consider the characteristics of the animal with which we are 

 dealing. It is a creature peculiarly adapted by its habits to man's man- 

 agement. It occupies no territory needed, as were the buffalo's feeding 

 grounds, for the subsistence of more valuable domestic animals; no 

 herders are required to prevent its being lost in the wastes of the ocean, 

 and no expense is incurred either to protect it from the inclemency 

 of the weather or to provide a winter food supply; yet with more cer- 

 tainty than the ranchman's flocks and herds seek the home range do the 

 seals annually return to their breeding grounds where, under proper 

 management, they can without injury to the parent stock be made to 

 yield a profit equal to if not greater than that derived from the cattle 

 of the plains or the sheep of the mountains. 



THE SOUTHERN FUR SEAL AND ITS DESTRUCTION. 



Despite these characteristics, which must have been apparent to the 

 most ignorant and unobservant, what has been the course of events? 

 Turning first to the fur seal of the south we find that as early as 1690 

 some little interest was manifested in its capture, but it was not until 

 the close of the last century that the pursuit was begun in earnest. 

 Hardy mariners, stimulated by the hope of sharing in the profits of the 



'From Bulletin United States Fish Commision, 1893, pp. 361-370. 



