APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



473 



tions are not yet well known. Stel- 

 lar si)oke of their migrations as 

 being as regular as those of the 

 various kinds of sea-fowls, and they 

 are recorded as arriving with great 

 regulaiity atthe Pribylofif Islands; 

 but where tliey pass the season of 

 winter is still a matter of conjec- 

 ture" (p. 335). 



4. Under the heading "Cfl/Zor-* 

 hinus Uiainus — JSTortliem Fur-seal" 

 is the following statement: 



" Tlie fur seal is well known to 

 have been formerly abundant on 

 the western coast of North Amer- 

 ica, as far south as California, but 

 the exact southern limit of their 

 range I have been unable to deter- 

 mine. 



" Captain Scammon spoke of 

 having seen them 'on one of the 

 San Benito Islands, on the coast 

 of Lower California, and many 

 beaches were found fronting gul- 

 lies where (fur) seals in large num- 

 bers formerly gathered, and as 

 they had plenty of ground to re- 

 treat upon, the sealers sometimes 

 drove them far enough back to 

 make sure of the whole herd, or 

 that portion of them the skins of 

 which were desirable.' He also 

 states that the fur seal and sea-ele- 

 phant once made the shores (of 

 Guadaloupe Island) a favourite 

 resorting-place, and refers to their 

 former occurrence on Cedros Island 

 in latitude 280" (p. 332). 



5, "Man, of course, stands firstin 

 importance as an enemy of the fur- 

 seal, but under the restrictions 

 respecting the killing of these ani- 

 mals now enforced atthe Pribyloff 

 Islands, does not appear to have 

 a very marked influence in eflect- 

 ing their decrease" (p. 381). 



Behring Sea. It is to these islands 

 that seals repair annually to breed, 

 and there is no evidence that they 

 breed elsewhere than on these 

 islands. It is evident, from what 

 we know of seal life elsewhere, 

 that were the climate sufficiently 

 mild in winter, they would undoubt- 

 edly pass the whole year at these 

 islands. Owing, however, to the 

 inclemency of the winter months, 

 the fur-seals are forced to migrate 

 southward in search of food and a 

 milder climate." — (Appendix I, p. 

 405.) 



4. "Since fur-seal breeding rook- 

 eries are reported to have formerly 

 existed on some of the small islands 

 off Southern California, it has been 

 assumed that they were a portion 

 of the Pribyloff herd which some- 

 times remained south to breed. 

 Such an assumption is entirely 

 opposed to what is known of the 

 habits and distribution of marine 

 life and tbe well-grounded prin- 

 ciples of geographic distribution, 

 viz., that a fur-seal breeding on an 

 Arctic island, which it annually 

 travels thousands of miles to reach, 

 would also choose for a breeding- 

 station an island in sub-tropical 

 latitude. Fortunately, the rebut- 

 tal of this assumption does not de- 

 pend upon the generalizations of 

 the naturalists, since specimens 

 have recently been obtained from 

 Guadaloupe Island which show 

 that while a fur-seal formerly oc- 

 curred there, and is still sometimes 

 found there in small numbers, it is 

 not only not the Pribyloff spe- 

 cies, but a seal belonging to a dif- 

 ferent genus, HITHERTO ONLY 

 KNOWN AS AN INHABITANT OF 



THE Southern Hemisphere " 

 (p. 400). 



5. "The history of the Pribyloff 

 fur-seal herd shows that for a pe- 

 riod of about fifteen years it was 

 jiossible to kill for commercial pur- 

 poses 100,01)0 male seals annually 

 with not only no recognizable de- 

 crease nor deterioration of the 

 herd, but apparently a decided in- 

 crease up to about the year 1880 " 

 (p. 407). 



