36 



INSTITUTION OF HAULING GROUNIJS. 



The bachelor fur seals have a wholesome and well-grouuded ioar of these bulls, 

 keepliijj away from them and from the rookeries. This leads to the iustitntion of 

 the separate hauling oronuds on whieh the bachelors wander, play, or sleep at will. 

 The sea in front of the lookeries is also a play s])ace for theni. Only fear of the 

 bulls keeps theni away irom the harems. When the old bulls leave the rookeries in 

 August to ieed the bachelors scatter themselves over the breeding giouuds. The 

 oldest of them, the half bulls (.") and B years old), usually enter first, endeavoring to 

 play tlie part of the older bulls, which tliey do with great appaient satisfaction. 

 On the return of the latter in September, these are again driven off. 



On Bering Island, as already stated, tlie number of adult bulls is very small. 

 There are now no separate hauling grounds. The bachelors lie about the harems 

 even in June and July, and wiien they are sought lor killing, the whole herd, males, 

 females, and pups must l)e dri\en off together. For this reason the drives on Bering 

 Island are not made at the time of the height of the breeding season. 



Such a condition has never existed ou the Pribilof Islands. During the killing 

 season the bachelors are x)erforce obliged to stay away from the rookeries, and the 

 harems are not disturbed when the young males are driven to the killing grounds. 



Beyond the mixing np of the herd, which is inconvenient to the fur seal killers 

 and dangerous to the pups, no wW etfect of the reduction of males lias been reported 

 from Bering Island. S<> long as the bachelors herd separately in July and are not 

 found diffused through the rookeries, it may be safely assumed that there are adult 

 bulls enough. Fortunately, al>o, as has been shown, any error in this respect will 

 make itself felt tirst in tlie (jnota, and is capable of immediate rectification. Fur- 

 thermore, the (iovernment has it in its power to fully regulate this matter. 



Since 1890 the (juota of males to l)e killed has never been a fixed one, and the fJov- 

 ernment agents take care that a suHicient number of young nuiles are each year 

 allowed to escape to replenish the stock. At present about 5,000 adult bulls are iu 

 service in the harems. This number is evidently far more than enough. Doubtless 

 ten years is a low estimate of the perio<l of service of a bull. The saving of 500 to 

 1,000 young males each year would j)robably be fully sufticient to keep the stock 

 replenished. 



XV. NEED OF SCIENTIFIC SUPERVISION OF THE BREEDING 



HERDS. 



The continuous investigation of these matters should be undertaken. The herd 

 should be treated as a breeding herd of cattle or horses would be. It should be 

 under the immediate control each summer of a competent naturalist, who should 

 devote his energies to the study of the needs of the herd, its preservation, increase, 

 and possible imjirovemeut. 



IMPROVEMENT AND EXTENSION OF THE ROOKERIES. 



In this connection, I may call attention to the great need of improvements in the 

 rookeries themselves. For a slight cost the death traps described in detail below 

 could be rejiaired and oI)literated, and the lives of thousands of pups each year could 

 be saved. The rookery grounds themselves could be extended both on St. Paul and 

 St. George by blasting off the cliffs and strewing the fiats with bowlders. The whole 

 front of Tolstoi and Zapadni headlands, for example, by the use of dynamite, could 

 be made available for breeding grounds, and similar extensions could be made on 

 North and East rookeries of St. George. 



Such extension, of course, could not be necessary except in case of the complete 

 protection of the herds at sea; but with the spread of common decency in interna- 

 tional affairs this condition should be brought about. It is vastly more important 

 that the fur seal herd should be saved and enlarged than that any individual nation 

 should have the profits of their slaughter. 



There is no sacredness to be attached to the natural state or conditions of a wild 

 animal. Animals, like men iu a state of nature, are pushed to the utmost by hard 

 conditions. There is probably no wild animal whose conditions of life could not be 

 artificially improved by human interference if it were thought worth the while. 



XVI. METHODS OF KILLING OF BACHELOR SEALS. 



In the drives on the Pribilof Islands the bachelor seals only are included. These 

 are brought in droves from the hauling grounds to the killing grounds located at 

 convenient distances from the rookeries, preferably near a pond of water. The 

 drives are usually made in the night, the seals arriving at the killing grounds early 



