ALASKA FUR SEAL. 189 



chapter upon the management of the Sealing business 

 of gradually increasing the killing of the surplus males, 

 with careful watch for effect upon the rookeries, year 

 after year, and, on the other hand, of watching the 

 market so as not to overstock it, will, I trust, be taken 

 in hand very soon ; but let this fact be noted : these 

 animals are liable at any time to be terribly diminished 

 in number by a visitation of plague or distemper, 

 over which we can have no control, and to which, 

 like all other congregations of animal life, as well as 

 vegetable, are ever subject. The diminution may run 

 on for many years before they shall recuperate and 

 increase to their normal number. This may not happen 

 for an indefinite time to come, or it may be apparent 

 next year ; and for this reason especially I lay such stress 

 upon the necessity of mapping out and jealously watch- 

 ing the breeding-grounds every season, so that one past 

 year may be accurately compared with the present one. 



" The Seals suffer no loss from natural foes while they 

 are in the vicinity of the Islands ; for were they dis- 

 turbed by Sharks, killers, etc., it would be observed. 

 They meet with these enemies as they go south, during 

 the summer, in the North Pacific. Should the weather, 

 however, be stormy during the season that the pups 

 begin to swim, the surf will drown thousands upon 

 thousands of the awkward little animals. During the 

 two seasons of my residence upon the Islands, the sea 

 was quite rough, and no loss, of mention, was sustained 

 by this class." 



The Fur Seal-skin, after being sold in the rough 

 state, undergoes many processes before it appears before 

 the public in the form of the well-known Seal- skin ; in 

 fact, if any uninitiated person were to see the skin in 

 the salted state, he would not be able to recognize it in 



