244 NATURAL HISTORY. 



Stenorhynchus, universally accepted, and also in current use up to the present time. Some confusion 

 having thus occasionally resulted, Professor Peters drew attention to the awkwardness of the 

 circumstance, and proposed that the term Ogmorhinus should replace Stenorhynchus, as applied to 

 the Seals ; Lamarck's name having priority being retained for the Crabs. This well exemplifies 

 one among the many difficulties and cross-purposes incident to nomenclature, &c., of Natural History, 

 where, in the vast array of names and facts presented, glaring discrepancies will arise, despite the 

 constant revision of those devoted to its study. 



Before closing this chapter, there is one subject which I believe deserves mention, however 

 briefly. The enormous slaughter of the Seal tribe is a matter of serious consideration, if only in 

 a mercantile spirit. Among the sealers, neither sex nor age is spared, and therefore at the present 

 wholesale rate of destruction it is easy to foresee early comparative, if not absolute, extinction of the 

 tribe. Nothing can be clearer than the fact that since the Americans in their Alaska territory have 

 adopted the plan of killing a prescribed number annually of the young and male Seals only, in other 

 words, of protecting the breeding females, the Fur Seals have shown no tendency to diminution, but 

 rather an apparent increase. Nature has her limits, and the Seals have other enemies to contend 

 with besides man. Yet the latter, taking advantage of the maternal affections, and with the aid of 

 deadly firearms and the like, in a certain space of time commits more fatal havoc among them than all 

 their other foes combined. Several persons have urged a close-time. The fact is there are great diffi- 

 culties in the way of this, for even in well-protected British rivers and fisheries generally, Salmon 

 and others of the finny tribe are caught at forbidden times, in spite of Acts of Parliament and other 

 regulations. Who is to watch the sealers in far-off inhospitable climes 1 Certainly in the Northern 

 sealing-grounds the departure of the ships could be made somewhat later, as has, indeed, to some 

 extent been done, but of course at the risk of a diminished catch. In the long run beneficial results 

 doubtless will follow. But the plan most applicable to both Northern and Southern Seal-capture 

 would be the insistance of the simple rule of sparing the breeding females whenever possible. If our 

 merchants at home would take the matter in hand, and, but for a few years, refuse to receive 

 female skins, the sealers would be practically forced, and in fact find it to their benefit, to look to their 

 interests from a more humane point of view. 



JAMES MURIE. 



