888 SCIENCE. 
try, and under the fostering care of Great 
Britain. If she permits its continuance, the 
odium must rest with her.’’ 
The remedy proposed by the American Com- 
mission for the present decline of the herd is 
‘the absolute and permanent prohibition of 
pelagic sealing.’ The herd is at present com- 
mercially ruined, but it is believed that with 
judicious management it can be brought up, in 
the course of fifteen to twenty years, to its for- 
mer maximum condition. 
The recommendations formulated by the 
commission not only include the complete ces- 
sation of pelagic sealing, but recommend that 
the herd should he ‘‘ placed permanently in 
charge of a competent naturalist and practical 
man of affairs, whose business it shall be to 
visit the islands each year in the breeding 
season and to study the condition of the herd 
and ways for its improvement; to determine 
the size of the quota which shall be taken, and 
supervise its taking; in short, to make the 
needs, possibilities and limitations of the fur 
seal herd his life study. By such a course the 
government can hope to have at hand at all 
times that expert advice and assistance that 
have been so signally lacking in the past, and 
which is so essential to the proper administra- 
tion of its future interests.”’ 
Following these recommendations in Part 1 
are several appendices, giving statistics perti- 
nent to the preceding discussion, relating to the 
number of seals killed on the Pribilof Islands 
and in pelagic sealing, from about 1870 tc 1897 ; 
also the treaties and other documents between 
Great Britain and the United States on the fur 
seal question. Noteworthy among the latter is 
the joint statement of the fur seal experts of the 
two governments, drawn up and signed in 
Washington, at the conclusion of the field work 
of the two commissions, in November, 1897. 
The agreement of the two commissions, thus 
shown upon all matters touching the decline 
and present condition of the seal herd, and the 
causes that have led to its present unsatisfac- 
tory status, is certainly most gratifying, and 
augers well for its future. 
The numerous illustrations in Part 1 are 
mainly reproductions of photographs, and illus- 
trate various phases of the subject under dis- 
[N. S. Von. X. No. 259- 
cussion. There are, however, a dozen draw- 
ings from nature by Bristow Adams, depicting 
characteristic types of seal life. A series of 
photographs illustrate seal life as seen massed 
on the rookeries; while another set show the 
methods of driving, killing and skinning; still 
another set (numbered as plates i.—ix.) illustrate 
the decline of the herd, the views being com- 
parative views of the same rookeries taken in 
different years from 1894 to 1897. 
Part 2 of the report, forming pages 251-606, 
is largely a transcript of the daily observations 
of the commission during the two seasons of its 
work at the Pribilof Islands, and gives in de- 
tail the evidence on which the conclusions of 
the commission, set forth in Part 1, were based. 
Part 3 contains twenty-four distinct chapter 
headings, fourteen of which relate directly or in- 
directly to the natural history of the fur seal, 
occupying pp. 1-839, and the remainder to the 
general natural history of the Pribilof Islands, 
the volume, as a whole, forming a most im- 
portant contribution to the zoology and botany 
of this now pretty thoroughly known group of 
islands. These contributions may be briefly 
summarized as follows: ‘I.—The Pribilof Fur 
Seal’ (pp. 1-7), treats of the ‘main divisions of 
the Pinnipedia,’ and ‘variations in size and 
color of the Pribilof seal,’ by Mr. F. A. Lucas, 
while Dr. Jordan and G. A, Clark consider ‘the 
species of the Callorhinus or northern fur seal,’ 
of which three are recognized, namely, (1) C. 
ursinus (Linn.), constituting the Commander 
Island herd; (2) C. alascanus Jordan & Clark, 
the Pribilof fur seal; (8) C. curilensis Jordan 
& Clark, the Robben Island fur seal. These 
species differ appreciably, not only in size, and 
in the texture, color and commercial value 
of the fur, but occupy distinct geographical 
ranges, and do not commingle, even in their 
migrations. 
Under ‘II.—The Anatomy of the Fur Seal’ 
(pp. 9-41, pll. i.—viii.), Mr. Lucas describes the 
dentition of the fur seal, Robert E. Snodgrass, 
its anatomy, and Pierre A. Fish, the brain of 
the fur seal, in comparison with that of other 
Pinnipeds and the black bear. 
‘TII.—The Breeding Habits of the Pribilof 
Fur Seal’ (pp. 48-57, pll. ix.—xi.), is by Mr. 
Lucas, as is also ‘1V.—The Food of the North- 
oe 
