184 
better answer is found in the fact that years 
before the club and the gun were used upon 
the seals the herds throve and increased, and 
the more powerful bulls fought their way into 
the breeding grounds and did their part in 
creating a strong and virile race that was 
numbered by millions instead of the few thou- 
sands that are left to-day. 
The tide of life on the fur islands has 
reached its lowest ebb. Dr. Townsend himself 
says that “the stock of females has reached 
the lowest limit in the history of the Islands.” 
The objectionable persons, of whom I am one, 
have based their beliefs and opinions not on 
the conflicting reports of scientists, but on 
the broad principle that when any species of 
wild life has become so depleted as to be in 
danger of extinction, the best remedy is to let 
it absolutely alone. In this connection I wish 
to quote President David Starr Jordan, of 
Stanford University, and also a member of the 
Advisory Board of the Fur Seal Service: 
With men, as with animals, ‘‘ Like the seed is 
the harvest.’’? In every vicissitude of race of men 
or of breed of animals, it is always those who are 
left who determine what the future shall be. 
All progress in whatever direction is conditioned 
on selective breeding. There is no permanent 
advance not dependent on advance in the type of 
parenthood. There is no decline except that 
arising. from breeding from the second-best in- 
stead of the best. 
The survival of the fittest in the struggle for 
existence is the primal moving cause of race 
progress and of race changes. In the red stress 
of human history, this natural process of selection 
is sometimes reversed. A reversal of selection is 
the beginning of degradation. It is degradation 
itself. 
Natural conditions should be the rule, and 
all killing of selected males for commercial 
purposes should absolutely cease until the tide 
of increase in the fur seal herd has once more 
set toward the flood. 
MarsHatt McLran, 
Member of the Camp Fire Club’s Com- 
mittee on Game Protective Legislation 
NEw YORE, 
January 2, 1912 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 892 
QUOTATIONS 
THE PRESIDENCY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MON- 
TANA 
For the first time the state board of educa- 
tion permits me, although solely through 
newspaper reports, to have a statement of con- 
siderations which influenced its members in 
voting “not to renew Dr. Duniway’s contract 
at the close of the year, September 1, 1912.” 
To the extent that official propriety permits 
me, and without entering into controversies 
with my superior officers, I feel obliged to call 
attention to certain features of this report. 
The basis for the action of the state board 
is said to be primarily a report of the univer- 
sity committee, following an investigation of 
university affairs made in Missoula on Oc- 
tober 22 and 23. It should be borne in mind 
that this so-called investigation was made 
without notice to the president of the univer- 
sity, and at a time when he was out of the 
state. The summing of members of the fac- 
ulty, of alumni and of students, was prear- 
ranged by the chairman of the committee. 
Under the circumstances there was no oppor- 
tunity, and there seems to have been no ex- 
pectation to extend the scope of the inquiry 
to make it fairly representative of the prevail- 
ing opinions and the essential facts which 
ought to have been considered. Any fair- 
minded person is entitled to draw his own con- 
clusions concerning such a situation. 
It will conduce to clearness if the report of 
the committee, as published, is briefly consid- 
ered, point by point. Its essence is found in 
these statements: First: “ We find there is a 
spirit of unrest and dissatisfaction existing 
between the student body and the president’; 
second, “ There is dissatisfaction between the 
alumni and the president”; third, “ A lack of 
cooperation and coordination existing be- 
tween the president and a large portion of his 
faculty ”; fourth, “ We find that the president 
is exceedingly unpopular among the high 
school students of the state.” <A fifth point is 
added, said to be derived from the general dis- 
cussion, “ That President Duniway does not 
visit classrooms to ascertain at first-hand the 
