EAST INDIA, BEAE. 171 



The skins are almost valueless, 5s. to 10s. being the 

 usual price. They are usually brought over in small 

 quantities by private collectors. 



One thousand six hundred and sixty-eight Bears of all 

 species were killed in British India in 1886. 



The East India Bear would probably interbreed with 

 the Black Bear of America, and if the offspring of these 

 two Bears should prove fertile, it would necessitate their 

 being classed as one species. 



SOUTH SHETLAND EUE SEAL. 

 French : Loup marin. German : Seehund. 



We now arrive at a most interesting group, that of 

 the Otariidse, atid we shall first treat of the South 

 Shetland Seal, which stands at the head of the family. 

 It is one of the rarest species, as well as the producer of 

 the richest Seal-skins. This Seal is an inhabitant of the 

 South Shetland, South Georgia, and the Sandwich 

 Islands in the Antarctic Ocean. It was very numerous 

 soine seventy to eighty years ago, the fur-traders then 

 buying the skins by the cargo of 5,000 to 10,000 at 

 about 4s. 6d. to 8s. each. But owing to over-catching, 

 and indiscriminate slaughter of the young or " Black 

 Pups," the race has been almost exterminated. 



One million two hundred thousand skins were said to 

 have been taken in South Georgia soon after its dis- 

 covery, and nearly an equal quantity from the Island of 

 Desolation, when the Seal trade was carried on in that 

 region. In 1800, when the Fur Seal trade was at its 

 highest, 112,000 skins were taken from the South 

 Georgia Islands, 57,000 of which were captured by one 



