88 ALASKA. 



flfteen cows ; but to make sure that we save two-year-old bulls 

 enough every season, we will more tban double this proportion 

 and set aside one-fifth of the young males in question, and that 

 will leave 180,000 seals iu good condition that can be safely 

 killed every year without the slightest iujury to the perpetua- 

 tion of the stock itself. 



In the above showing I have put the largest estimate upon 

 the loss sustained at sea by the youngest seals, too large I am 

 morally certain, btit I wish to place the matter iu the very 

 worst light in which it can be put, and to give the seals the 

 full benefit of every doubt. 



With regard to the increase of the seal-life, I do not think it 

 within the power of human management to promote this end 

 to the slightest appreciable degree beyond its present extent 

 and condition in a state of nature ; for it cannot fail to be evi- 

 dent, from my detailed description of the habits and life of the 

 fur-seal on these islands during a great part of the year, that 

 could man have the same supervision and control over this 

 animal during the whole season which he has at his command 

 while they visit the land, he might cause them to multiply and 

 increase, as he would so many cattle, to an indefinite number, 

 only limited by time and means ; but the case in question, unfor- 

 tunately, takes the fur-seal six months out of every year far 

 beyond the reach, or even cognizance, of any one, where it is 

 exposed to known powerful and destructive natural enemies, 

 and many others probably unknown, which prey upon it, and, 

 iu accordance with a well-recognized law of nature, keep it at 

 about a certain number which has been for ages, and will be 

 for the future, as affairs now are, its maximum limit of in- 

 crease. This law holds good everywhere throughout the animal 

 kingdom, regulating and preserving the equilibrium of life in a 

 state of nature. Did it not hold good, these Seal Islands and 

 all Bering Sea would have been literally covered, and have 

 swarmed with them long before the Eussians discovered them ; 

 but there were no more seals when first seen here by human 

 eyes in 178C-'S7 than there are now, in 1874, as far as all evi- 

 dence goes. 



With reference to the amount of ground covered by the seals 

 when first discovered by the Eussians, I have examined every 

 foot of the sh' ire-line of both islands, where the bones, &c., 

 might be lying on any deserted ground since then, and, after 

 carefully surveying the new ground now occupied by the seals, 



