‘NOVEMBER 26, 1897.] 
friendly attitude of the two governments as 
shown by recent events leads to the hope 
that the whole matter may be amicably ad- 
justed. In any event, the complete agree- 
ment of the naturalists taking part in the 
conference may be regarded as a triumph 
for science. 
The essential features of the propositions 
agreed upon are as follows : 
That since 1884 the Pribilof herd has de- 
clined from year to year until at present 
the number of seals is not more than one- 
fifth to one-third as great as formerly, 
although the number of breeding females in 
1896 and 1897 was between 160,000 and 
130,000. 
been a notable decrease since 1896, although 
It is also agreed that there has 
the exact amount of this loss could not be 
determined. The existence of a high death 
rate among the young from natural causes 
is acknowledged and the conclusion reached 
that not more than one-half or one-third 
reach the age of three years. 
To those who are acquainted with the 
various reports on the subject the latter 
figure will seem nearest the mark, and the 
evident inference would be that if the death 
rate in nature is so great any addition to it 
by such causes as pelagic sealing, with the 
consequentstarvation of thousands of young, 
The 
methods of driving and killing as practised 
is bound to reduce the seal herd. 
on the islands, it is stated, call for no com- 
ment, and it is admitted that land killing 
as now carried on does no harm. 
This is one of the points on which the 
press of both England and the United 
States has been more or less confused and, 
in spite of all that has been written on the 
SCIENCE. 
783 
fur seal during the past few years, there 
seems to be a vague suspicion that after all 
land killing may have had something to do 
with the decrease of the herd. This matter 
was fully discussed in the preliminary re- 
portof 1896, where it was very clearly shown 
that as the fur seal is polygamous and the 
harems even now, when the number of 
females has been greatly reduced, contained 
on an average thirty females to one male, 
it is evident that, the birth rate being equal, 
there is a vast superfluity of males. 
It isacknowledged that the catch at sea 
contains a marked excess of females, and 
this is a most gratifying admission to those 
who have read the statements made by the 
sealers, in which the number of males taken, 
was frequently reported to be as great as 
that of the females and sometimes even 
greater, a remarkable state of affairs when 
it is remembered that, owing to the killing 
of young males on land and the fact that 
the nursing females are compelled to go to 
sea in search of food ata time when the 
males are on shore, the females are bound 
to be greatly in the majority. 
On the other hand, it is pointed out that 
not all these females are nursing or preg- 
nant, for the reason that many adult seals 
have lost their pups through the natural 
causes, while a certain percentage is bound 
to consist of yearling and two-year-old 
females. 
The conclusion that excessive pelagic 
sealing has lead to a decrease in the herd is 
coupled with the axiomatic statement that 
a small number of females, less than the 
annual increment of breeders, might be 
taken without producing actual decrease. 
