70 FUR SEALS OF ALASKA. 
rate there from total collapse in 1907. Even if this is done now, it will be a close 
call for that life, anyhow. . 
To permit any resumption of the work of the lessees in 1904 is to stain our own 
hands with the sin and shame of the complete extermination of this anomalous, 
wonderful, and harmless marine life. This result will ensue as sure as fate unless 
the killing of the lessees is at once suspended on the Seal Islands of Alaska. 
The full number of old bulls carried on the above table from 1903 to 1907 repre- 
sents all that will be seen in those years and alive on the breeding grounds, but this 
number is greater, much greater, every season than the real number of virile or 
potent sires. For instance, in 1903 we count 2,200 old bulls, but a large number of 
them are lying upon the rookery ground without cows. Why do they thus lie idle, 
when the bulls in active service around them have more than twice as many cows in 
1903 to serve as they had in 1900? Those bulls in service in 1903 had an average of 
44 cows to the harem, when in 1900 they did not have over 22, and which latter ratio 
is the normal one. 
The answer is, these bulls were thus idle because they had lost, through age, that 
vigor necessary to attract, serve, and control a harem. 
I saw this same order of affairs on these Pribilof breeding grounds in 1890, and I 
at once raised the note of alarm; then stopped the killing of the lessees on July 20, 
when only 19,000 of the 60,000 quota had been secured; then forced my modus 
vivendi through, in 1891, June 14, which checked all the work of the lessees and 
only permitted the killing of 7,500 food seals for the natives’ use in 1891, 1892, and 
1893 on these islands. 
Therefore those bulls which were seen alive on the breeding grounds last summer, 
and which we will continue to observe until 1907, are the survivors of the young 
males—the 2, 3, and 4 year olds which were saved by the modus vivendi of 1891, 
1892, and 1893, plus a few 3 and 4 year olds which may have slipped through over 
the killing grounds in 1894 and 1895. 
But since 1896 no fresh young male blood has been permitted to pass the club on 
the killing grounds of St. Paul and St. George islands; that work unchecked and not 
entirely suspended will result in the total collapse of the birth rate by 1905 and 1907. 
In full explanation and of indisputable justification of the foregoing anticipation of 
the complete extermination of the male fur-seal life on the Pribilof Islands, I submit 
the following: 
Table made up from the annual record of London sales, where all of the Pribilof fur-sea 
skins have been sold since 1870, down to date. 
“Prime,”’| »| ‘*Eye- 
or 8 to 9 Gera plasters,” 
ound or 44 to 5 
Season of— | skins (3 pound pound Total Remarks. 
and 4 are ae skins (1- catch. 
year olds) year 
olds). Me olds). 
VS 22 wesecsieis sicnise 100, 000 | None. None. 100, 000 Sea in 4 working weeks in June and 
uly. 
T89O..2 secias veleec 8, 588 10, 048 7,314 20,950 | Lessees tried to get 60,000 ‘‘prime”’ skins; 
| _ could not; killing stopped July 20. 
ABO s tetesicaes 2,251 110;000! Js ceeciesee 12,251 | Modus vivendi: Killing restricted to 7,500 
i the year. 
0. 
Do. 
Lessees strained every nerve to get 30,000 
‘‘prime”’ skins; they could not. 
sees piece 15,000 | Lessees make desperate effort to get 30,000 
“prime’’ skins; fail. 
8, 000 16, 000 6, 000 30,000 | Lessees take full quota; drive desperately to 
7th August, but fail in ‘‘prime”’ and short 
skins; lowest prices since 1876. 
DBO ssccctualass oa) 5, 000 12, 960 8, 000 20,960 | Lessees fail to take full quota; drive desper- 
ately; avoid the small skins; price in Lon- 
don is too low; lowest ever known since 
TBOB. ectcresintee da! 3, 000 8, 000 7, 081 18,031 | Lessees refuse to take full quota, since they 
can not get ‘‘prime”’ skins. Pricesadvance 
; a 15 per cent in London. 
ASOD etc evisi eet 2,700 5, 500 9, 000 16,812 | Prices advance 20 per cent in London over 
figures of 1898; orders given for all the 5- 
pound skins in 1900. 
2, 200 6, 000 14, 000 22,470 | Price is up; get everything in 1901. 
1, 826 4, 886 16, 000 22,672 | Price is up; get everything in 1902. 
1,311 3, 903 16, 878 22,092 | Price is up; get everything in 1903. 
646 1, 500 18, OB4 15,180 | Price is up; get everything in 1904. 
aOnly 15,180 skins out of 19,212 taken in 1903 were sold December 17, 1903; the > of ‘ 
some 4,000 skins, held over to December 17, 1904. ( pee CRE 
