COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 101 



number — at a figure which haa been reached, for ages past, and ■will 

 continue to be in the fntnre, as far as they now are — tlnar present 

 maxiniuni limit of increase, namely, between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000 

 seals, in round numbers. 



On another page the same author writes : 



During the winter solstice — between the lapse of the autumnal, and United States 

 the verging of the vernal equinoxes — in order to get tliis enormous Census Report, 

 food supply, the fur-seals are necessarily obliged to disperse over.aP*'''- 

 very large area of fishing-ground, ranging throughout the North 

 Pacific, 5,000 miles across between Jajian and the Straits of Fuca. 



LIEUTENANT MAYNARD. 



On the same subject, Lieutenant W. Maynard, United 

 States navy, in his Special Report of 1874, says: 



But in reality we do not even know where they are for seven months Report on K«r- 

 in each year, while we do know that they have deadly enemies. ..... ■ T?t\ ''',**'""'''i^' 



Our protection of 1 hem can only be partial, that is to say, we can limit j^e.ss. H. K.'. Ex. 

 the number to be killed, when they are within our reach, and prevent Doc. 43, p. 6. 

 their being disturbed ou the breeding rookeries or driven from the 

 islands. 



PROFESSOR ALLEN. 



It is only durinj:^ the course of the. present inquiry that 

 the nii<inition routes have been made known, and the ones- Pritisii com- 

 tion which has been consistently asked of sealers from thcpoit, para. ni. 

 earliest times has been answered. With reference to this, 

 Professor Allen, writing in 1880, says: 



Of the life of these animals while absent from the islands but little 

 is known, nor is it known Avhere their principal feeding-grounds are. "Monopraph 

 r\ j_i n ,t -1 1 • of Nortli Aiiieri- 



On another page ot the same work he writes: can Pinnipeds," 



p. 410. 



Except during the season of reproduction, these animals appear to Ibid., p. 33,=;. 

 lead a wandering life, but the extent and direction of their migrations 



are not yet well known but where they pass the season 



of winter is still a matter of conjecture. 



man's care OF SEALS THUS MERELY NEGATIVE. 



While, therefore, it is admitted that, in the absence of 

 precaiitions such as to prevent excessive disturbance and 

 unlimited killing of seals upon the breeding islands, these 



animals might in a few years be pnicticiilly extirpated 

 117 or driven from the islands, it is evident that such 



precautions are of a purely negative character. 



HIS PRACTICES ON THE ISLANDS ARE IN.JURIOUS TO THE 



ANIMAL. 



It is further shown that the control and mode of dealing ^ee pp. 2go et 

 with the fur-seals at the time of driving is not only not *''^' 

 beneticial, but is distinctly and in an important degree 

 injurious to the survivors; while the claim advanced in the 

 United States Case, to the efiect that a large number of (.^^''^f*\5^*'"^8 

 "surplus males" may be killed with advantage, as in the sTd pp. 238 et 

 case of other "domestic" animals, is decisively negatived *^^' 

 by observations elsewhere detailed, and particularly by the 

 fact that the fur-seals diti'er entirely from domestic animals 



