226 ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY 



came near exterminating the herd and causing international war. The 

 reasons for the excessive destructiveness of pelagic sealing were as 

 follows: the seals were killed with spears or guns as they lay sleeping 

 at the surface of the sea; as the sex of the animals thus killed could 

 not be determined until after capture the females as well as the young 

 males were killed. With the death of each adult female not only was 

 the adult killed, but her unborn young and her sucking pup also 

 perished, making at least three deaths for each hide secured. This, 

 of course, could not long continue without a rapid destruction of the 

 herd and pelagic sealing was stopped barely in time to save it. 



After the United States bought Alaska she seized and confiscated 

 all vessels caught in pelagic sealing, assuming that seals that bred 

 on our coasts were ours when at sea; this brought on a serious con- 

 troversy with England that lasted, with more or less danger and bad 

 feeling, for 25 years or more, until the convention of 1911, be- 

 tween Great Britain, Russia, Japan and the United States, pro- 

 hibited all pelagic killing for a period of 15 years. Possibly at the 

 expiration of this period the time may be extended indefinitely. 

 At about the same time the United States enacted a law prohibiting 

 even land killing for a period of 10 years. This law has caused much 

 criticism by those familiar with the breeding habits of the Alaskan 

 seal, as briefly described above. 



The agreement to suspend pelagic sealing is one of the most note- 

 worthy attempts to save a vanishing race of animals by international 

 treaty that we have. The diminution of the fur-seal catch since the 

 early eighties are shown in the figures from the offerings of furs at 

 the London Auction sales and other places; for example in 1887, 

 when the sales were greatest, there were offered (according to P. R. 

 Poland & Son, London) 226,370; in 1897 there were 123,336; and in 

 1907, 55,914; since the last date they have fallen still lower. According 

 to the same authority the catch of seals in Alaska fell from 122,166 

 in 1886 to 13,584 in 1910, when killing there ceased. 



It is likely that but for the prohibition of pelagic sealing the Alaskan 

 fur-seal would have been exterminated as was the American Bison 

 that, a generation or two ago, roamed our western plains in herds of 

 enormous size and was almost completely destroyed by thoughtless 

 and useless hunting. 



