WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 



feathers, leaving only the down, which fairly represents 

 the fur left on the seal-skin after the hairs have been 

 removed. The hair seals cannot be treated in this manner, 

 as they do not possess the same kind of undercoat of fur, 

 and, consequently, if plucked or denuded of hair, would be 

 useful only as leather. 



The everlasting slaughter of the fish-eating animals has 

 been carried on year, after year for ages with increasing 

 skill; with the aid of steamships, and with the great 

 improvement in fire-arms, it is a matter of surprise that 

 their numbers hold out, for they breed but slowly, product 

 but one at birth, and this but once in a year, and require 

 several years to grow to maturity. Another equally 

 wonderful matter, well worthy of consideration, is the 

 supply of food required to sustain a large population of 

 these fish-devouring animals. Take, for instance, the small 

 species {Phoca mtulina) of our own shores, whose daily 

 consumption in a captive state would be equal to 10 lbs. 

 weight ; now it takes forty herrings to weigh 10 lbs., but 

 no doubt when at liberty and full of activity the creature 

 would eat a much larger quantity, therefore we may safely 

 say that 1000 of these small seals would require 40,000 

 herrings daily to support them. Now if we say that the 

 northern seal fishery destroys 500,000 seals annually, some 

 idea is given of the prodigious quantity of fishes that must 

 be spared the same fate. We must therefore congratulate 

 ourselves by supposing that a large portion of those fishes 

 find their way to our tables instead of feeding our hairy, 

 furry, and much-admired aquatic friends. The vastness of 

 this inexhaustible supply is only faintly shadowed forth, 

 the reality is beyond our comprehension. Imagine the 

 abundance of fishes that must be consumed not only by 

 the hundreds of thousands of different species of seals, 

 porpoises, and other aquatic animals, but by the myriads 



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