438 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



killing seals on the island. He estimated that in a period of 

 seven years more than 3,000,000 skins had been taken thence 

 to Canton, and he makes the statement that when first dis- 

 covered the total seal population was two or three million. 

 This great slaughter very soon depleted the stock so that by 

 1807, according to Captain Morrell, "the business was scarcely 

 worth following," and in 1824 there were practically none left. 

 "In later years the island has been visited at intervals by fur- 

 seal hunters and small catches obtained. As late as 1891 

 Capt. Frank M. Gaffney states (affidavit) that on visiting the 

 island for fur seals he saw 300 or 400, and took 19, showing 

 that a few are still to be found at Mas-a-Fuero." Sealing at 

 Juan Fernandez, only a few miles distant, began at about the 

 same time. Dampier, who visited the island in 1683, speaks of 

 their abundance at that time, finding that "there is not a Bay or 

 Rock that one can get ashore on that is not full of them . . 

 Here are always thousands, I might say possibly millions of 

 them . . . Large ships might here load themselves with 

 Seal Skins and Trayne Oyl. for they are extraordinary fat." 

 Juan Fernandez was earlier settled than Masafuera and already 

 had a population of 3,000 persons in 1800, so that according to 

 Delano there were not then *any seals left on any part of it. 

 "Subsequently the island appears to have been visited at 

 intervals by sealers in search of fur seals, but always with poor 

 success." Nevertheless, according to Captain Gaffney, a few 

 were seen there in December, 1891, but "the number left is too 

 small to possess any commercial importance." 



Formerly fur seals were abundant on the little islands of St. 

 Felix, St. Ambrose, and St. Marys, a group north of Masa- 

 fuera off the coast of Chile. Delano in 1801 speaks of large 

 catches being made at the two first-mentioned while in 1816 

 Captain Fanning took 14,000 skins at St. Marys. This de- 

 struction seems to have gone on unabated until about the last 

 quarter of the nineteenth century, for in 1870, according to J. 

 A. Allen, a certain George Fogel saw "thousands" at Chikla- 

 way. By 1891, however, they were nearly gone, and in Decem- 

 ber of that year Captain Gaffney further testified to their 

 depletion, for he saw only two at St. Felix and St. Ambrose 

 where formerly they had been so abundant, while at Rees 

 Inlet he obtained a single one. He testified that they still bred 

 on the islands, but "the Chilians go there and kill all they can 



