428 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



the island since 1910, when the first sealing license was issued 

 by the Falklands. 



With the reduction of the fur seals on the Falklands and 

 South Georgia, the hunt was pushed still farther south to the 

 South Shetlands. Weddell writes of the success of his and 

 other crews here: "The quantity of seals taken off these islands, 

 by vessels from different parts, during the years 1821 and 1822, 

 may be computed at 320,000 . . . This valuable animal, 

 the fur seal, might . . . have been spared to render 

 annually 100,000 furs for many years to come. This would 

 have followed from not killing the mothers till the young were 

 able to take the water; and even then, only those which ap- 

 peared to be old, together with a proportion of the males, 

 thereby diminishing their total number, but in slow progres- 

 sion." Shortly after Weddell's time, the pursuit of fur seals in 

 this region was nearly abandoned, since the seals had been 

 largely extirpated. Fifty years later, however, the remnant 

 seems to have somewhat recovered, for between 1871 and 1891 

 at least 18,000 skins were taken from various parts of the 

 group. "From this second catastrophe they were never 

 allowed to recover, and their final extermination is believed to 

 have taken place in the opening years of the present century. 

 The last authentic capture occurred in 1902, when the Swedish 

 expedition found a single fur seal on Nelson Island. Since then 

 . . . none has been recorded from the group " (Marr, 1935). 



The South Orkneys, lying to the northeast of the South 

 Shetlands, seem to have yielded relatively fewer fur seals. 

 Only three were reported by Weddell in 1823, but Dallmann 

 50 years afterward reported 165 seals, and he is the last to 

 record the seal's presence there, "but it is by no means certain 

 that it was he who exterminated it there," for these islands 

 seem a less favorable place since they are surrounded by pack 

 ice for a much longer period each year than are the South 

 Shetlands (Marr, 1935, pp. 370-373). On the South Sandwich 

 group, still more to the northeast, Rudmose Brown (1913) 

 supposes this seal may still rarely occur for "it certainly was 

 found there in comparatively recent years." 



While thus the southern fur seal is believed to be gone from 

 the island groups where it formerly occurred within the Falk- 

 land dependencies, a few probably remain in the Straits of 

 Magellan region, and it may survive under some protection 



