ALASIvA. 2Cti 



THE FUR-SEAL ROOKEPJES OF THE SOUTH AT- 

 LANTIC. 



While the CaJIorhuius is found iu such great munbers in the 

 Korth I'acitic, there is notliinji'of its genus found in tlie waters 

 of the North Atlantic, and none to speak of in the South Pacific, 

 and to-day the whole number found elsewhere than Alaska is 

 quite small, though iu early days, some hundred years ago, 

 when the fur-seal was first discovered on the South Shetland 

 Islands, they were so abundant and so nirinerous that hundreds 

 of thousands were annually taken — taken without the slightest 

 regard to sex or condition, although the skins were not of great 

 A'alue then. So numerous were these animals that for over fifty 

 j'ears au immense number, several hundred thousand skins, 

 were yearly secured in this reckless, ruinous fashion, and it was 

 not until the beginning of the last decade that the supply grew 

 so small that scarcely a vessel of the former fleets remained on 

 the ground ; and last season, the winter of 1873-74, less than 

 15,000 were gathered from the ground upon which Djany mil- 

 lions of fur-seals were found forty years ago resting and 

 breeding. 



The government of Buenos Ay res has from the first protected 

 and cared for a small rookery of fur-seals under the blufts at 

 Cabo Corrientes, on its coast, Avhere sOrae 5,000 to 8,000 are an- 

 nually taken, but the seals here have no hauling-grounds like 

 those on Saint Paul ; they are taken with much labor under the 

 high cliffs of this portion of the coast. This is the only govern- 

 ment aid and care that the seals have ever received outside of 

 Bering Sea. The following extract shows the way iu which the 

 fur-seals of the south came into notice : 



" Soon after Captain Cook's voyage iu the Resolution, per- 

 formed in 1771, he presented an official report concerning New 

 Georgia, in which he gave an account of the great number of 

 elephant-seals and fur-seals which he had found on the shores 

 of that island. This induced several enterprising merchants to 

 fit out vessels to take them ; the former for their oil, the latter 

 for their skins. Captain Weddell states that he had been cred- 

 ibly informed that during a period of about fifty years not less 

 than 20,000 tons of oil were procured annually from this spot 

 alone for the London market, which, at a moderate ])rice, would 

 yield about £1.000,000 a year. 



