HOW RECORD OF SEALS IS KEPT. 303 



numbers. All sealers knew which sex predominated but clang to their original story, 

 and there was no one who could controvert their assertions, although there was every 

 reason to doubt them. An order from the United States Treasury Department 

 requiring the catch of all American sealers to be examined on their arrival in port was 

 the means of throwing considerable light on the subject, and the information gained 

 from this source fully established the fact of the great preponderance of females. 



It has generally been supposed by most sealers, and the view is still held by 

 many, that if it were known that a greater number of females than males were taken 

 it would greatly affect and possibly restrict their privileges when the time came for a 

 readjustment of the pelagic regulations. The fact has generally been lost sight of 

 that the condition of the rookeries at the end of five years will have the most weight 

 in deciding the matter. 



That pelagic sealers should pay little attention to the sexes of the seals taken was 

 but natural, as they had no object in determining which sex predominated; the 

 thought uppermost in their minds being to capture as many seals as possible. 



No check is placed upon the official logs of the Canadian sealers by the custom- 

 house oflflcials at Victoria, who accept such records as authentic. If the skins landed 

 at Victoria were subjected to the same rigid examination as those landed in United 

 States ports, little or no difference would be found in the proportion of each sex rep- 

 resented in the catch by the vessels of the two countries. It seems strange that on 

 several occasions when American and Canadian sealers have hunted on the same 

 ground and in close proximity to each other, the catch of the former has always 

 been composed largely of females and the latter of males. There are days when 

 more males than females are taken, but such times are not frequent. It is only fair, 

 however, to state that a number of both American and Canadian sealing captains 

 have admitted the truth to the writer, and all United States hunters with whom he 

 has conversed admit that the majority of seals captured off Japan and around the 

 Commander Islands are females. 



During the season of 1894 the schooner Louis Olsen kept an account of the seals 

 taken off the coast of Japan, and it was found that out of 1,600 two-thirds were 

 females. In 1895 the schooner Brenda obtained 89G seals on the same coast, fully 

 two-thirds of which were also females, according to the statement of one of her 

 hunters. In nearly every instance where the writer has spoken with hunters on this 

 subject they have admitted that in all waters where the northern seal herd is found, 

 with one exception, females largely predominate. This exception is the Fairweather 

 ground, where, a few years previous to the beginning of the close season now in force, 

 most of the pelagic sealing was carried on during the month of May. On this ground, 

 as recorded by the writer in a previous report, is found a great number of large males, 

 and, according to the statement of all sealers and of others, it is now quite well estab- 

 lished that large breeding males frequent this ground in greater numbers than any 

 other known region. 



It may be well to illustrate briefly a few of the conditions under which the record 

 of seals is kept. When seals are brought ou board in small numbers it is very easy to 

 identify the sex, but when they arrive in large quantities, a hundred or more, it 

 requires considerable time to examine each one, and sealers have, to them, more impor- 

 tant duties to attend to. If oftens happens that the hunters are forced to return on 



