LOBOS ISLAND AND SOUTH SHETLANDS. 313 



The so-called "Oupe Horn" catch, which presumably includes all of the fur seals 

 taken off the coasts of South America and the various outlying islands and archi- 

 pelagos to the southward, from 1S76 to 1892, aggregates a total of about 113,000 skins, 

 varying in different years from about 17,500 in 1880 to less than 1,000 in 1886, but 

 averaging for the last ten years about 3,500 annually.' 



LOBOS ISLAND. 



The fur-seal rookery on Lobos Island, oft' the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, and 

 belonging to the Republic of Uruguay, is one of the few that have escaped annihila- 

 tion at the hands of the seal hunter. Many fur seals were taken here prior to 1820. 

 Captain Morrell ^ found men stationed there to take seals in 1824, and Captain Wed- 

 dell,^ writing in 1825, refers to Lobos Island as being farmed out by the Government of 

 Montevideo for sealing purposes, under regulations designed to prevent the extermina- 

 tion of the seals. As evidence that the matter has been long managed with discretion 

 may be cited the statistics given in the affidavits of Messrs. Emil Teichmann and 

 Alfred Fraser (of the lirm of C. M. Lampson & Co., of London), which show that the 

 catch for the last twenty years has averaged about 13,000 a year, or a total of some 

 250,000 fur-seal skins. This throws into strong relief the folly of the exterminating 

 slaughter of fur seals that has been waged unremittingly for nearly a century 

 throughout the Southern seas. 



SOUTH SHETLAND ISLANDS. 



The South Shetlands constitute a numerous group of small islands situated about 

 300 miles south of Cape Horn. Sealing began here in 1819, when the American brig 

 Hersilia, from Stoniugton, Conn., and an English vessel from Buenos Ayres obtained 

 cargoes of very tine fur-seal skins. News of the discovery of this new sealing ground 

 quickly spread, and before the end of the following year a tieet of 30 vessels (18 

 American, 10 English, and 2 Russian) had reached the South Shetlands to gather in 

 the valnable pelts of the hapless seals. Captain Weddell, writing in 1825, gives the 

 following account of slaughter which ensued. 



The quantity of seals taken ott' these islands by vessels from different parts during the years 1821 

 and 1822 may he computed at 320,000, and the quantity of sea-elephant oil at 940 tons. This valuable 

 animal, the fur seal, might, hy a law similar to that which restrains the fishermen in the size of the 

 mesh of their nets, have been spared to render annually 100,000 fur seals for many years to come. This 

 would have followed from not killing the mothers until the young were able to take the water, and 

 even then only those which appeared to be old, together with a proportion of the males, thereby 

 diminishing their total number, but in slow progression. This system is practiced at the River Plata. 

 The island of Lobos, at the mouth of that river, contains a quantity of seals, and is farmed by the 

 Government of Montevideo, under certain restrictions, that the hnnter shall take them only at stated 

 periods, in order to prevent extermination. The system of extermination was practiced, however, at 

 the South Shetlands; for whenever a seal reached the beach, of whatever denomination, he was 

 immediately killed and his skin taken, and by this means, at the end of the second year, the seals 

 became nearly extinct. The young, having lost their mothers when only three or four days old, of 

 course died, which at the lowest calculation exceeded 100,000.^ 



'Affidavit of Emil Teichmann, of London tirm of C. M. Lampson &. Co. 



= Voyages, }>. 154. 'Ibid., p. 142. ■* N'oyages, etc., pp.141, 142. 



