LOBOS ISLAND AND SOOTH SHETLANDS. 313 



The so-called "Gape Horn" catch, which presumably includes all of the for seals 

 taken off the coasts of South America and the various outlying islands and archi- 

 pelagos to the southward, from 1876 to 1892, aggregates a total of about 113,000 skins, 

 varying in different years from about 17,500 in 1880 to less than 1,000 in 1886, but 

 averaging for the last ten years about 3,500 annually.^ 



LOBOS ISLAND. 



The fur-seal rookery on Lobos Island, off the mouth of the Eio de la Plata, and 

 belonging to the Republic of Uruguay, is one of the few that have escaped annihila- 

 tion at the hands of the seal hunter. Many fur seals were taken here prior to 1820. 

 Captain MorrelP found men stationed there to take seals in 1824, and Captain Wed- 

 dell,' writing in 1825, refers to Lobos Island as being farmed out by the Government of 

 Montevideo for sealing purposes, under regulations designed to prevent the extermina- 

 tion of the seals. As evidence that the matter has been long managed with discretion 

 may be cited the statistics given in the affidavits of Messrs. Bmil Teichmann and 

 Alfred Fraser (of the firm of C. M. Lampson & Co., of London), which show that the 

 catch for the last twenty years has averaged about 13,000 a year, or a total of some 

 250,000 fur-seal skins. This throws into strong relief the folly of the exterminating 

 slaughter of for seals that has been waged unremittingly for nearly a century 

 throughout the Southern seas. 



SOUTH SHETLAND ISLANDS. 



The South Shetlands constitute a numerous group of small islands situated about 

 300 miles south of Cape Horn. Sealing began here in 1819, when the American brig 

 Hersilia, from Stonington, Conn., and an English vessel from Buenos Ayres obtained 

 cargoes of very line fur-seal skins. News of the discovery of this new sealing ground 

 quickly siDread, and before the end of the following year a fleet of 30 vessels (18 

 American, 10 English, and 3 Russian) had reached the South Shetlands to gather in 

 the valuable pelts of the hapless seals. Captain Weddell, writing in 1825, gives the 

 following account of slaughter which ensued. 



■The quantity of seals taken oif these islands by Tessels from different parts during the years 1821 

 and 1822 may he computed at 320,000, and the quantity of sea-elephant oil at 940 tons. This valuable 

 animal the fur seal, might, by a law similar to that which restrains the fishermen in the size of the 

 mesh of their nets, have been spared to render annually 100,000 fur seals for luany years to come. This 

 would have followed from not killing the mothers until the young were able to take the water, and 

 even then only those which appeared to be old, together with a proportion of the males, thereby 

 diminishing their total number, but in slow progression. This system is practiced at the Eiver Plata. 

 The island of Lobos, at the mouth of that river, contains a quantity of seals, and is farmed by the 

 Government of Montevideo, under certain restrictions, that the huntei- shall take them only at stated 

 periods in, order to prevent extermination. The system of extermination was practiced, however, at 

 the South Shetlands; for whenever a seal reached the beach, of -whatever denomination, he was 

 immediatelv killed and his skin taken, and by this means, at the end of the second year, the seals 

 became nearly extinct. The young, having lost their mothers when only three or four days old, of 

 course died, which at the lowest calculation exceeded 100,000.* 



'Affidavit of Emil Teichmann, of London firm of C. M. Lampson & Co. 



2 Voyages, p. 154. ^Ibid., p. 142. * Voyages, etc., pp.141, 142. 



