326 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



By these agencies, during their absence from the islands until their 

 reappearance in the following year, and in July, they are so percep- 

 tibly diminished in number that I do not think, fairly considered, 

 more than one-half of the legion which left the ground of their 

 birth last October come up the next July to these favorite landing- 

 places— that is, only 250,000 of them return out of the 500,000 

 born last year. The same statement in every respect applies to the 

 going and the coming of the 500,000 female pups, which are iden- 

 tical in size, shape, and behavior. 



As yearlings, however, these 250,000 survivors of last year's 

 birth have become strong, lithe, and active swimmers, and when 

 they again leave the hauling grounds, as before, in the fall, the}' are 

 fully as able as are the older class to take care of themselves, and 

 when they reappear next year, at least 225,000 of them safely return 

 in the second season after birth. From this on I believe that they 

 live out their natural lives of fifteen to twenty years each, the death- 

 rate now caused by the visitation of marine enemies affecting them 

 in the aggregate but slightly. And, again, the same wiU hold good 

 touching the females, the average natural life of which, however, I 

 take to be only nine or ten years each. 



Out of these two hundred and twenty-five thousand young males 

 we are required to save only one-fifteenth of their number to j^ass 

 over to the breeding-grounds, and meet there the two hundred and 

 twenty-five thousand young females ; in other words, the polygamous 

 habit of this animal is such that, by its own volition, I do not think 

 that more than one male annually out of fifteen born is needed on 

 the breeding-grounds in the future ; but in my calculations, to be 

 within the margin and to make sure that I save two-year-old males 

 enough every season, I will more than double this proportion, and 

 set aside every fifth one of the young males in question. That will 

 leave one hundred and eighty thousand seals, in good condition, 

 that can be safely killed every year, without the slightest injury to 

 the perpetuation of the stock itself forever in all of its original 

 integrity. 



In the above showing I have put a very extreme estimate 

 upon that loss sustained at sea by the pup-seals — too large, I am 

 morally certain ; bvit, in attempting to draw this line safely, I wish 

 to place the matter in the very worst light in which it can be put, 

 and to give the seals the full benefit of every doubt. Surely I have 

 clearly presented the ease, and certainly no one will question the 



