COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



211 



made upon it) for more than a few seasons, after which 

 their propagating: power falls oft' very rapidly. If, tliere- 

 fore, the same rule holds in the case of the fur-seal (and 

 the analogy is very close, particularly in respect to the 

 deer), the number of males actually I'equired would 

 243 be very materially increased. The time of fertility 

 of the male, in sucli cases, is, in other words, much 

 shorter than that of the female. 



It must not be omitted to note, iu the case of the fur- 

 seal, that the age of imberty of the female is attained at 

 least three years before that of effective service by the 

 nuile, thus rendering the risk of previous death much 

 greater in males than in females. As the death-rate from 

 such causes is admittedly unknown, the results in regard 

 to the number of males reaching a virile age in proj)ortion 

 to births must likewise be wholly uncertain. 



Whether the age of effective service by the males has in 

 nature become gradually increased in consequence of the 

 polygamous habits of seals upon the rookeries, and the 

 impossibility of any but the larger and older niales hold- 

 ing places on the rookeries, or whetlier the later date of 

 fertility in the case of the male, resulting in greater losses 

 of males, and acting on au equal birth-rate iu respect to 

 sexes, — has led to such polygamous habits, it is im^^ossible 

 to determine. 



In any case, tables or diagrams founded on such a train 

 of assumptions as those above noted cannot be accepted as 

 proving anything to the jioint in connection with seal life, 

 though they serve, as above stat<'d, to show in Avhat man- 

 ner tlie methods practised in the breeding-islands have been 

 justiiled. 



Veniaminov, during the Eussian control of the islands, 

 spent much ingenuity and doubtless much time in elaborat- 

 ing very similar tables, but no reference appears to have 

 been made to these when it was decided to hx the number 

 of seals for killing at 100,000 annually under the control of 

 the United States. 



The available data are too uncertain for any theoretical 

 discussion such as that attempted by the United States 

 Commissioners. An ajjpeal must be made rather to facts 

 and results, and these, it is maintained, show in the clear- 

 est possible manner that the reduction in luiiuber of seals 

 met with on the Pribylorf Islands is chictly due to the num- 

 ber of seals killed upon these islands, and to the manner of 

 killing there practised. 



FURTHER EVIDENCE OF DECREASE OF MALE SEALS. 



In order to show still more clearly, however, the untena- 

 ble character of the claim which is now made in the United 

 States Case, to the effect that the observed decrease on the 



islands has been primarily iu females, the following 

 244 additional extracts from lie[)oits of Cf^xerumeut 



ofticers upou the islands may be referred to. 



