28 THE FUR SEAL 



three Governments that seal-hunting should be sus- 

 pended altogether until the ' rookeries ' became re- 

 populated. Hunters were duly compensated for inter- 

 ference with their industry, while the British and 

 Japanese Governments were indemnified for such 

 rights as they had surrendered under the adjust- 

 ment of sea limits by the award to each of fifteen 

 per cent, of such revenue as might accrue to the 

 American Government from the industry when it 

 should come to be revived. 



Such revival is in a fair way of being attained. 

 American gun-boats patrol the seas to ward off 

 poachers, and the census taken of the herds in 1920 

 showed that the seals had increased to 550,000 from a 

 total of 134,000 in 1909. It may seem difficult to 

 ensure accuracy in the enumeration of a population so 

 amphibious and slippery as that of the Pribyloff Islands, 

 and indeed it has to be gone about carefully, for the 

 old bulls are furiously pugnacious and attack any 

 human or other intruder that ventures among them. 

 But the habits and movements of the herds are so 

 regular and so well known to the men in charge of the 

 islands, that it is possible to conduct an effective census 

 under due precaution. Enumerators count the bulls 

 and cows from the summit of cliffs, and afterwards the 

 young seals before they go to sea. 



Of the commercial value of the industry which is 

 thus in process of being restored, there can be no 

 doubt. It is now proposed to allow 25,000 young male 

 seals to be killed annually. As the value of each ' pelt ' 

 is estimated at 30, that means an immediate gross 



