26 THE FUR SEAL 



similar to those put upon human savagery in domestic 

 slaughter-houses should be enforced in these Arctic 

 solitudes. The presence of a few inspectors with the 

 sealing ileet might prevail to purge the industry of its 

 worst features, although that would have no effect in 

 arresting the process of extermination, so long as seals 

 are denied what has been provided in most civi- 

 lised countries for far less interesting and valuable 

 animals, namely, a reasonable close-time. In England, 

 no man may take a fresh-water coarse fish between 

 March 15 and June 15, under pain of 2 for a first 

 conviction and 5 for subsequent ones. The fur seal is 

 a nobler creature, and of higher economic value than a 

 roach or a gudgeon ; worth an effort to prevent it dis- 

 appearing, one should say. The question is one of 

 more than humane sentiment. Sealskins are a valuable 

 article of commerce, and there is no reason why 

 moderate toll should not be exacted for an indefinite 

 period from wild herds which, if considerately treated, 

 would be practically inexhaustible. 



It has been shown that the slaughter of a large 

 number of male seals is positively beneficial to the 

 race; to regulate that slaughter in British, as has 

 already been done in American, waters, seems more 

 reasonable, as well as more feasible, than the remedy 

 advocated by Mr. Collinson, which is to induce ladies 

 to forswear altogether the use of sealskin in their 

 raiment. 



