190 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 
THE SKIN OF A FEMALE TO BE CONTRABAND. 
As to ways and means for accomplishing the desired end we have nothing to 
offer. We are glad to be able to call attention to the action of our Government in the 
passage of the bill forbidding the citizens of the United States to engage in pelagic 
sealing. We may suggest that should Great Britain enact and enforce a similar law 
this would end the matter. If the fur-seal herd is to be preserved its breeding females 
must be protected from slaughter. To make the skin of a female fur seal a contraband 
article, subject to seizure and confiscation when brought into a port of a civilized 
nation, will protect her from slaughter. 
THE PROPOSED EXTERMINATION BY SLAUGHTER ON THE ROOKERIES. 
We have had occasion, in the preliminary reports of the commission, to denounce 
a method of settling the fur-seal question, which has already received more attention 
than it merits, namely, the extinction of the herd by the slaughter of the animals on 
their breeding grounds. We trust that the day is passed when such a proposition 
would be tolerated. The measure is an abominable one, without a single redeeming 
feature. It would condense into one wholesale act all the objectionable features in 
pelagic sealing, against which we, as a nation, have been from the first contending; 
and it would lodge upon us alone and for all time the odium for the extermination by 
a barbarous method of a noble race of animals. The United States can not afford to 
shirk her responsibility for the protection and preservation of the fur seals by any 
such makeshift. It remains for the two great nations interested in the welfare of the 
fur-seal herd, and under obligation to look after that welfare, to find a way of settling 
the problem that shall be effective and honorable. : 
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FUR-SEAL HERD. 
We have already had occasion to refer to the importance of the fur-seal herd as 
a property investment, adding to the wealth and comfort of mankind. Great Britain 
and the United States both share in the profits to be derived from the legitimate 
product of the herd, the former through the interests of her citizens in the preparation 
of the seal skins for the market, the latter through the revenue she derives under her 
lease. 
In its present condition the fur-seal herd is sadly reduced. Under the expensive 
conditions of protection necessitated by the existence of pelagic sealing the profits of 
its product on land are eaten up. But even now, if the present expensive patrol could 
be waived, the return from the herd would be by no means insignificant. Under the 
quota of 1897 the revenue to the Government can not be far froin $250,000, 5 per cent 
on an investinent of $5,000,000. 
A STRONG NUCLEUS REMAINS. 
The nucleus of the herd which remains is strong and vigorous. Under proper 
conditions it will increase, and in fifteen or twenty years should equal its maximum 
condition. This would mean, under the present lease of the islands, a revenue in tax 
alone of $1,000,000 annually. But with proper protection the product of the herd 
from the start would increase and grow as the herd grows, becoming greater each 
year, until normal conditions were again reached. 
