FUR SEALS OR SEA BEARS. 233 



terms of the treaty, and for a time threatened to lead to 

 its abrogation by Great Britain and Japan, as the killing 

 of the superfluous males on the islands would yield more 

 than twelve thousand skins annually, while killing for 

 food supplies alone would not allow of the taking of more 

 than from three to five thousand. 



Apart from the question of bad faith, it is the judg- 

 ment of those who are posted on this subject that the 

 cutting down of the number of bachelor seals to be killed 

 on the islands from the number provided in the treaty, 

 will result in the existance, in 1917, of at least thirty 

 thousand superfluous bulls, who in their struggles to 

 establish their harems, will not only destroy one another, 

 but many of the female and the young as well. The 

 amendment, instead of helping to conserve the herd, will 

 hasten its destruction. Statistics show that only fifteen 

 hundred bulls were needed for the herd on the island in 

 3912. 



Another thing about which those who voted for the 

 amendment seemed to be ignorant of, is the fact that 

 the carcasses of the seals are needed for the sustenance 

 of the blue foxes, and other subsidiary life on the islands. 

 As the government has taken forty thousand blue foxes 

 during the time it has been in possession there ; and as 

 the skins of three year old bachelor seals are worth forty 

 dollars apiece ; it is easy to calculate the money loss to 

 the government by the passing of this amendment. 



Previous to this the United States Congress, in 1890, 

 passed laws prohibiting American vessels from engaging 

 in pelagic sealing, and preventing the bringing into this 

 country of the Victoria or Northwest Coast skins which 

 are the fruit of this industry. In the absence of co-opera- 

 tion on the part of England, Russia and Japan the only 

 result of this legislation was an increase in the number 

 of Canadian and other foreign vessels engaged in the 

 work of indiscriminate slaughter; and it looked as if, 

 for want of united action on the part of the great 

 maritime powers interested, it would be only a short 

 time before human greed and folly would so reduce the 

 number of Sea Bears, in northern waters, that their 

 pursuit would no longer be profitable. Referring to this 

 condition in a message to Congress, President Roosevelt 



