THE RUIN OF THE HERD. 189 
MALES CAN BE KILLED WITH IMPUNITY. 
Third, it is agreed that owing to the polygamous habit of the fur seal, coupled 
with an equal birth rate of the sexes, it is possible to remove a large number of males 
with impunity, and that the operations of land killing as now conducted do not affect 
the virility of the males-or fail to leave an adequate supply of male life for breeding 
purposes. As land killing has always been confined to the males, and as its operations 
are to-day what they have been since the herd came into American control, except in 
so far as they have been improved, this means that land killing is not and has not 
been a factor in the decline of the herd. 
EXCESSIVE DESTRUCTION OF FEMALES. 
Fourth, it is agreed that pelagic sealing involves the killing of males and females 
alike without discrimination, as the sexes coexist in the sea; that the proportion of 
females taken in the pelagic catches of recent years has been from 62 to 84 per cent; 
that the females so taken are in large part pregnant and nursing, their death involving 
the death of their offspring. It is agreed that this abstraction of breeding females, 
which in recent years has been largely in excess of the natural increment of the herd, 
has. gone too far, and-has caused the diminution found in the herd. In other words, 
put in plain terms, this means that pelagic sealing has been the cause of the decline 
in the fur-seal herd. - 
COMPROMISE FINDINGS. 
It is also agreed th a limited number of females, within the natural increment 
of the herd, may be killed without causing actual diminution. It is found that in 
the rapid decline of the pelagic catch there is a tendency toward equilibrium at this 
point of safety. Itis further found that as a species the fur seal is far from being 
exterminated, and that under the present conditions of protection such extermination 
is not probable. These statements are self-evident truths, though wholly irrelevant 
to the question. We have already discussed this supposed equilibrium. The supposed 
safety of the herd as a species is made to depend upon the maintenance of a costly 
patrol, which would naturally be abandoned by the United States if it saw no hope 
of the restoration of its industry. 
THE HERD COMMERCIALLY RUINED. 
Finally, it isagreed that the herd in its present condition yields butan inconsiderable 
return either to-the lessees of the islands or to the owners of the pelagic fleet. In a 
word, it is agreed that the fur-seal herd has declined until it is commercially ruined 
both on land and at sea; that land killing is not responsible for this decline, and that 
pelagic sealing is responsible. 
PELAGIC SEALING INCOMPATIBLE WITH PRESERVATION OF HERD, 
We have shown clearly enough in our discussion of the methods and conditions 
of pelagic sealing that the continuance of the industry in any form is incompatible 
with the preservation and restoration of the fur-seal herd. In taking up a 
reconsideration of the matter there is but one thing to do, namely, abolish pelagic 
sealing; in other words, remove the cause of the decline. This is the task which must 
confront the United States and Great Britain as well at the close of the season of 1898. 
