io8 CARNIVORES. 



At the close of the last and during the early part of the present 

 Abundance. . , . 



century fur-seals existed in countless numbers in many parts of the 



world ; but human greed and folly have succeeded in so reducing their numbers in 

 most regions that their pursuit is no longer profitable. Fortunately, however, 

 both for science and for commerce, the seal rookeries of the Prybiloff Islands in 

 Behring Sea have been placed under such restrictions as to render the animal 

 slaughter compensated by the number of births. As an indication of the hosts 

 of fur-seals formerly existing in various parts of the world, we may quote some 

 figures given by Mr. Allen. Thus it is stated that in the year 1798 Captain 

 Fanning, of the ship Betsy of New York, after obtaining a full cargo of skins from 

 the island of Musapura, on the Chilian coast, estimated the number of fur-seals 

 remaining on the island at from 500,000 to 700,000; and it appears that but 

 little less than a million skins were subsequently taken from the same locality. 

 Fur-seals were still found on the Chilian coast in 1815. From the Georgian 

 Islands, at the extremity of South America, no less than 112,000 fur-seals arc 

 reported to have been taken in the year 1800, of which 57,000 were obtained by 

 one American vessel. About this date the discovery of fur-seals in Australia 

 was announced; and in 1804 a single ship obtained 74,000 skins. Large numbers 

 were also taken about the same period on Prince Edward's Islands, lying a few 

 hundred miles to the south-eastwards of the Cape of Good Hope. Again, between 

 the years 1820 and 1821, more than 300,000 skins were taken from the South 

 Shetland Islands alone ; while it is estimated that at least 100,000 young seals 

 were left to perish miserably, owing to the destruction of their mothers. In 1814 

 and 1815 the number of skins exported from Antipodes Island, off the coast of 

 New South Wales, was upwards of 400,000, of which, it is said, no less than a 

 fourth were spoilt owing to bad curing, and on arrival in Europe were sold as 

 manure. As early, however, as the year 1830 the number of fur-seals in the southern 

 seas had been so greatly diminished that vessels generally made losing voyages ; 

 and at the present day such a voyage partakes largely of the nature of a lottery. 

 During the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger, the late Professor Moseley states that 

 a considerable number of fur-seals were observed about Kerguelen Land ; two 

 schooners having obtained seventy in one clay, and twenty in another. The number 

 of skins taken in the Prybiloff Islands will be referred to later on ; but it may 

 be mentioned that at the present time, according to Mr. F A. Lucas, the annual 

 slaughter of fur-seals throughout the world averages 185,000, while that of hair- 

 seals reaches the enormous number of 875,000. 



The Southern Sea-Lion (Otaria jubata). 



The southern or Patagonian sea-lion, of which a group is represented in the 

 illustration on p. 103, is a hair-seal, and differs in certain respects both externally 

 and internally from all the other species. It inhabits the Galapagos Islands, and 

 the coasts of South America from Peru and Chili on the Pacific side, and from the 

 Rio de la Plata on the Atlantic border, southwards to the Falkland Islands and 

 Tierra del Fuego. Externally this species is distinguished from all the others by 

 the long hair of the neck, which forms a kind of mane ; although this mane is but 



