98 THE WORLD OF ANIMAL LIFE 



Northern Fur Seal, which is found on some of the northern coasts 

 of America. 



On the Pribyloff Islands alone no fewer than one hundred 

 thousand of these seals used to be killed every year. This seems a 

 very large number; but a few years ago more than twice as many 

 were annually slain, and the United States government was obliged 

 to regulate the slaughter. 



It is estimated that the "rookeries", as they are called, in 

 which these seals live consist of between four and five million 

 individuals, and that about a million young are born every year. 

 But a very large number of these are destroyed by other enemies 

 than man. 



The hunting of the fur seal — or seal-fishing, as it is called — is 

 much prosecuted in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. The 

 hunters, armed with wooden clubs, make their wdjy to the 

 rookeries, and, getting between the seals and the sea, drive the 

 animals inland, and then kill them in succession by heavy blows 

 on the snout, which is the most sensitive part of the body. The 

 skins are then stripped from the bodies, "salted" to prevent de- 

 composition, and shipped to the merchants. 



Upon arrival, each skin undergoes very careful cleansing, after 

 which a flat knife is passed through the skin itself, about midway 

 between the upper and lower surfaces. This sevei's the roots of 

 the long stiff bristles which form the outer covering of the fur, 

 and which can then be removed without difficult}'. Next follows 

 a series of processes by which the \A'arm close fur, or "pelt", is 

 softened and preserved. Lasth-, the fur is very carefully dyed, and 

 thus becomes the familiar "seal-skin" of commerce. 



UNGULATES, OR HOOFED ANIMALS 



THE OX 



The Ungulates, or hoofed animals, are perhaps the most im- 

 portant of the eleven orders into which the Mammals are divided. 



