FEBRUARY 27 



I have allowed the note above to stand as it was 

 written in 1910, when it seemed that the northern fur 

 seal was in imminent risk of extinction. It may serve 

 as my humble testimony, not only to the prudence and 

 energy of the United States Government in rescuing a 

 valuable industry from destruction, but to the degree 

 in which that result was owing to the timely exertion 

 of Mr. Collinson and the Humanitarian League on behalf 

 of a cruelly persecuted species. A yearly census of the 

 seals repairing to breed on two of the Pribyloff Islands 

 has been conducted by the American Bureau of Fisheries 

 since 1912. Whereas the herds numbered about three 

 millions towards the close of the nineteenth century, it 

 was ascertained in 1909 that they had been reduced by 

 indiscriminate slaughter to 134,000. It was obvious 

 that the licence to kill 100,000 seals on these islands 

 and within the three-mile seaward limit (which marked 

 the extent of the United States authority) could not be 

 continued without exterminating the herds. But it 

 was not within that limit that the deadly mischief was 

 wrought ; that was done on the ocean by seal-hunters 

 of all nations among the mother seals, which, taking 

 no account of the three-mile limit, went far to sea in 

 pursuit of fish. To avert the impending catastrophe 

 international action was required, and negotiations for 

 that purpose were undertaken between the Govern- 

 ments of the United States, Great Britain, and Japan. 

 The three-mile limit was first extended to sixty miles. 

 When it was found that the mother seals wandered far 

 beyond that, the limit was increased to two hundred 

 miles. Finally, in 1914 it was agreed between the 



