MAKING THE FUR SEAL ABUNDANT 
1159 
Photo from Hugh M. Smith, U. $. Bureau of Fisheries 
NORTHWEST COAST INDIANS HUNTING FUR SEALS 
In this primitive method of seal hunting the Indians in their canoes seek the seals, which, 
after gorging themselves with food, sleep at the surface during the process of digestion. 
While one man stealthily propels the canoe with noiseless strokes of his paddle, the other 
stands in the bow and holds ready a long-handled, two-headed spear with detachable barb 
fastened to a lanyard. The spear is hurled with deadly accuracy at close range, and the 
doomed seal is dragged into the boat by the lanyard and despatched with a club. 
judicious killing of the male seals when 
they are two or three years old and the 
disposal of their pelts to the best advan- 
tage. A third duty is to ascertain what 
are the real needs of the helpless native 
inhabitants of the seal islands, and to 
give them the aid that is best suited for 
their mental, moral, and physical natures. 
A point which has been overlooked or 
ignored in most recent criticism of the 
government’s policy regarding the ad- 
ministration of the seal islands is that 
the interests of government and fur seals 
are necessarily interdependent. To main- 
tain the physical condition of the herd at 
the highest point of perfection will in- 
sure the largest economic returns there- 
from; to exploit the herd beyond its ca- 
pacity will inevitably and quickly bring a 
diminution in financial proceeds. 
Fortunately it is easily possible always 
to keep well within the limits of safety 
in utilizing the surplus male seals, and it 
is a well-known and significant fact that 
one of the periods of greatest damage 
to the seal herd from internal causes re- 
sulted from a suspension of killing oper- 
ations on land, under the terms of a 
modus vivendi arranged between the 
United States and Great Britain pending 
the outcome of arbitration proceedings. 
WELFARE OF HERD DEMANDS KILLING OF 
SURPLUS. MALES 
Recent criticism of the government’s 
policy of taking the skins of seals in view 
of the depleted condition of the herd is 
based on deficient knowledge. The fur 
seal being a highly polygamous animal, 
and males and females being born in 
equal numbers, it follows that under the 
conditions that have prevailed and still 
continue the number of males produced 
is far in excess of the requirements of 
