372 CALLORHINUS URSINUS NORTHERN FUR SEAL. 



ing ground in the morning. This locality is said to be south- 

 Avest of Cape Classet, five to fifteen miles distant." * 



In hunting Seals for their commercial products the common 

 method of killing them appears to have generally been by club- 

 bing them, as is at present practiced on the Seal Islands of 

 Alaska, one or two heavy blows upon the head being sufficient 

 to dispatch them. The method of attack is very much like that 

 practiced in destroying herds of Walruses, already described. 

 A large party cautiously land, when possible, to the leeward of 

 a rookery, and then, at a given signal, rush ujion the Seals, with 

 loud shouting, and with their clubs soon destroy large numbers. 

 It has generally been practiced "without system or restraint,, 

 resulting in the speedy destruction of large rookeries. As is 

 well known, the Southern Sea Bears or Fur Seals {Arctoceplialus 

 ^^ falMandicus,''^ A. forsteri, A. ^^cinereus," etc.) were long since- 

 practically exterminated at many localities where they were 

 formerly very abundant, as has been the case with the Northern 

 Fur Seal on our own Californian coast. At one time the same 

 destructive and ruinous policy was pursued by the Eussians at 

 the Prybilov Islands, but the folly of such a practice was soon 

 pei'ceived, and through government interference their extermi- 

 nation there has been happily prevented. Their destruction is 

 at present regulated by the United States Government, the 

 * whole matter being judiciously and systematically managed. 

 The manner of taking and killing the Seals, and the method 

 adopted to x>revent their decrease, has been described in detail 

 by Mr. Elliott, and is here appended. 



"Taking the Seals. By reference to the habits of the fur- 

 seal, it is plain that two-thirds of all the males that are born (and 



{ they are equal in number to the females born) are never j)er- 

 mitted by the remaining third, strongest by natural selection^ 



'' to land upon the same ground with the females, which always 



* herd together en masse. Therefore, this great band of bachelor 

 seals, or ' holluschuckie,' is compelled, when it visits land, ta 

 live apart entkely, miles away frequeutlj^, from the breeding- 

 grounds, and in this admirably perfect manner of nature are 

 those seals which can be properly killed without injury to the 



'rookeries selected and held aside, so that the natives can visit 

 and take them as they would so many hogs, without disturbing 

 in the slightest degree the peace and quiet of the breeding- 



' grounds where the stock is perpetuated. 



* Marine Mammalia, pp. 154, 155. 



