EFFECTS OF CONTACT WITH MAN. 141 



RELATIONS OF MAN HAVE NOT AFFECTED SEALS. 



In short, our experience leads us to believe that not ouly has contact with man 

 produced no injurious ettect oti the herd, but, on the contrary, more intimate and 

 constant contact under intelligent direction would tend to render the seals more 

 tractable, and certainly open the way to the improvement of their condition. It will 

 never be possible to house and feed the fur .seals, but their breeding grounds can be 

 drained of the tilth which now breeds death to the young. These breeding grounds 

 can be extended and impioved. An exact enumeration of their number can be made. 

 The males to serve the breeding grounds can be selected and more closely limited, 

 thus obviating loss of revenue on the one hand and injury to the herd on the other. 

 In other words, much if not all that can be done with other animals is possible with 

 the fur seal. 



To sum up this matter of the relations of man to the animals on the islands : We 

 find that the killing of males as carried on, at least since the islands were transferred 

 to the United States, has not been so great as to endanger the breeding stock; that 

 the methods of handling the seals on the drives and killing grounds has not been 

 such as to permanently injure those surviving them. In a word, the interference and 

 operations of man have in no way contributed to alteration of the life habits of the 

 fur seal and are in no way responsible for its decline and threatened extermination. 



