132 SEALS AND SEA-LIONS 



The Period of Restoration 



1910. — Down to this date the misfortunes of the unhappy 

 Fur-Seal herds had steadily increased. About thirty-five 

 Japanese sealing vessels annually visited the Pribilof Islands, 

 and formed a cordon in front of the breeding-grounds of the 

 herds. Through that dead-line of boats and hunters, the 

 nursing mother Seals had to pass in order to reach their fish- 

 ing grounds, and to return from them to their young. On 

 shore about 15,000 male Seals were being annually slaughtered 

 by the leasing parties (the North American Commercial Com- 

 pany), and at sea about an equal number of Seals were killed 

 and secured, of which from 70 to 80 per cent were females! 

 The number of females killed at sea and lost never will be 

 known. 



For several years prior to 1910 the United States Gov- 

 ernment had been losing money on the Fur-Seal industry, 

 chiefly through costly but futile efforts to protect the herds. 

 By that time the total loss during the previous twenty years 

 amounted to about $6,000,000, not counting the loss of the 

 Seals themselves. In 1909 the lessees were unable to secure, 

 even by the closest driving, their full quota of 15,000 Seals. 



In the summer of 1910 the Camp-Fire Club of America 

 decided that it was time for private citizens to intervene at 

 Washington, in an effort to induce Congress to take action 

 of a nature calculated to save the Fur-Seal industry from per- 

 manent ruin, save the species from practical extinction on 

 our islands, and end a long-standing international disgrace. 

 Accordingly, in December of that year three specific demands 



