492 - APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
They do not go far from shore until the young are reared. Peron says that both 
parent elephant seals stay with the young, without feeding at all, until the young 
are 6 or 7 weeks old, and that then the old ones conduct the young to the water. 
(Clark’s article on Antarctic seals, p. 424.) 
The young are suckled by the females for some time and then left to themselves, 
lying on the beach, where they seem to grow fat without further feeding. (‘The 
Fisheries and Fishing Industries of the United States,” section 5, vol. ii, 1887, p. 
424.) For this reason those that are pupped in June are off in the water in August. 
So, also, on the African coast, the seal remains until the young can take care of 
themselves. (Jbid, p. 416.) 
The bulk of the seals are confined to the islands until ice surrounds them. (H. 
R. Ex. Doc. No. 45, 44th Congress, Ist Session, p. 2.) 
The seals never leave their places, seldom sleep, and never eat anything from May 
to August, when they take to the water, but, it is believed, take no food until their 
final departure in November. (H. H. McIntyre, H. R. Ex. Doc. No. 36, 41st Con- 
gress, 2nd Session, vol. v.) 
Mr. Elliott says, ‘‘perhaps she feeds” (p. 130, his Report on Alaska, 1874, H. R. 
Ex. Doc. No. 83, 44th Congress). 
The bulls, while on the island, prevent the mothers taking tothe water. (‘‘ Marine 
Mammals,” by Captain Shannon, United States Revenue Marine, 1874, p. 152.) 
From the 10th to the 25th July the rookeries are fuller than at any other time dur- 
ing the season, as the pups have all been born, and all the bulls, cows, and pups 
remain within their limits. (H. R. Ex. Doc. No. 43, 44th Congress, 1st Session, p. 3.) 
It has been shown that when in the rookeries mothers were destroyed, the young 
were found dead, &c., but Professor Elliott, in reference to the Pribyloy Islands, says: 
‘““With the exception of those animals which have received wounds in combat, no 
sick or dying seals are seen upon the islands. 
“Out of the great numbers, thousands upon thousands, of seals that must die 
every year from old age alone, not one have I ever seen here. They evidently give 
up their lives at sea.” (His Report on Alaska, 1874, H. R. Ex. Doe. No. 83, 44th 
Congress, p. 150.) 
To further prove that the contention of the Canadian Government is not at all 
unreasonable, it may be said that at the International Fisheries Exhibition, London, 
1883, Mr. Brown Goode, of the United States Fish Commission, having stated the 
Regulations of the United States concerning the Pribylov group, the official Report 
upon the Exhibition says: 
“Every animal, both in sea and on land, reproduces its kind in greater numbers 
than can possibly exist. In other words, all animals tend to multiply more rapidly 
than their food; many of them must in consequence either die or be destroyed, and 
man may rest satisfied that, so far as the open ocean is concerned, the fish which he 
destroys, if he abstain from destroying, would perish in other ways. With respect 
to the former (seals), I have already pointed out that the restriction which the 
United States Government has placed on the destruction of seals in the Alaskan 
islands seems unnecessarily large.” 
Ile added that Nature has imposed a limit to their destruction. 
Professor Elliott himself was of the opinion in 1874 (see his Report on Alaska 
already referred to, pp. 88, 89) that: 
“With regard to the increase of the seal life, I do not think it within the power of 
human management to promote this end to the slightest appreciable degree beyond its 
present extent and condition in a state of nature; for it cannot fail to be evident, from 
my detailed description of the habits and life of the fur-seal on these islands during 
a great part of the year, that, could man have the same supervision and control over 
this animal during the whole season which he has at his command while they visit the 
land, he might cause them to multiply and increase, as he would so many cattle, to an 
indefinite number, only limited by time and means; but the case in question, unfortu- 
nately, takes the fur-seal six months out of every year far beyond the reach, or even 
cognizance, of any one, where it is exposed to known powerful and destructive natural 
enemies, and many others probably unknown, which prey upon it and, in accordance 
with a well-recognized law of Nature, keep it at about a certain number, which has 
been for ages, and will be for the future, as affairs now are, its maximum limit of increase. 
This law holds good everywhere throughout the animal kingdom, regulating and pre- 
serving the equilibrium of life in a state of nature. Did it not hold good these seal 
islands and all Behring’s Sea would have been literally covered, and have swarmed 
with them long before the Russians discovered them; but there were no more seals 
when first seen here by human eyes in 1786-87 than there are now, in 1874, as far as 
all evidence goes. 
* * * * * * * 
‘“¢What can be done to promote their increase? We cannot cause a greater number 
of females to be born every year; we do not touch or disturb these females as they 
grow up and live, and wesave more than enough males to serve them. Nothing more 
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