260 THE ASIATIC FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 



coutrast quite instructive. The seals on tliat lonely rock have been persecuted quite 

 as unmercifully as those on the Kurils and the slaughter has been quite as 

 indiscriminate at times. Yet, although terribly decimated, there remains a small but 

 compact herd, which if left alone by the raiders and properly managed by the owners 

 might yet be made i-emunerative in a comparatively short time, as proven by previous 

 experience. And the cause ? The protection extended to these seals during the 

 breeding season, scant though it has been, is the only cause which has prevented the 

 extinction of theRobben Island seals, not commercially only, but literally. 

 The important lesson is that protection does protect. 



CAN THE KURIL ISLAND BOOKEKIES BE EESTOEED 1 



It has been asked next : Would it be possible to rehabilitate the Kuril rookeries ? 



Of course, as long as a single piair belonging to the rookeries are still alive and 

 are properly protected there is a remote possibility for the reestablishment of the 

 rookeries some time in the future, and the greater the number of pairs or harems 

 left the greater would be the probability. I might even go so far as to assume the 

 existence of a certain number of females at the present moment, and upon this 

 assumption and the further assumption of a certain birth rate and death rate, figure 

 out and demonstrate graphically in which year there ought to be so and so many 

 thousand seals again on the Kurils. It would look pretty, but I don't know that it 

 would serve any practical purpose, and therefore shall not attempt it. All I shall 

 venture to say at present is to affirm as my opinion that with proper protection the 

 rehabilitation of the rookeries on the Kurils is a possibility. 



But will it pay ! That depends entirely upon the kind of protection which could 

 be effectively extended to the seals. Were it necessary to station men-of-war, revenue 

 cutters, or military guards to ward off the poacher, surely it would not pay. But, if 

 seal poaching and marauding could be prevented by a system of international custom 

 measures and internal police regulations properly executed, by which it would be 

 impossible to possess or dispose of an illegally procured seal skin, then it might become 

 profitable to keep a watchful eye on the Kuril fur seals. 



