IMPENDING FATE OF THE FUR SEAL 



51 



vessels are sent out from Yokohama, and other 

 ports in Japan, under the Japanese flag, which 

 hunt seals within three miles of the Pribilof Isl- 

 ands! Canadian Sealers still hunt outside the 

 protected zone, and kill many seals, annually. 



Up to this date, our government has done 

 everything in its power to prevent the extermi- 

 nation of the Fur Seal, and afford it a just meas- 

 ure of protection. England fears that she can 

 go no farther without giving grave offence to 



of him who can take it. Patriotism, and the 

 desire for the greatest good of the greatest num- 

 ber, does not enter into their calculations. The 

 American or Canadian pelagic sealer claims that 

 the open sea is his, and he cares only for the $10 

 or $1.5 that each raw skin is worth. England 

 cannot reasonably be expected to Cjuarrel with 

 Canada because of our desire to perpetuate our 

 Seal herd, and derive from it a revenue of a mill- 

 ion dollars a year, — which is the sum which the 



Drawn by J. Carter Beard. 



THE H.\RP SEAL. 



Young and old specimens, showing changes in pelage at different periods. 



Canada. But in England, about $2,000,000 of 

 capital are invested in the business of dyeing 

 and dressing Fur Seal skins, and this work em- 

 ploys — or did employ — between two thousand 

 and three thousand operatives. It has always 

 been impossible for Seal skins to be satisfactorily 

 dyed and dressed in America. 



The insurmountable obstacle to the protec- 

 tion of the Fur Seal is its fatal habit of going to 

 sea, far from its hauling grounds, coupled with 

 the belief of a large number of Canadians and 

 Americans that a Seal at sea is the lawful prize 



Fur Seals would yield to-day, but for the slaugh- 

 ter of 1,000,000 females at sea, and the murder or 

 starvation of 1,000,000 pups, at sea and on shore. 

 Just what events will make up the next and 

 possibly the final chapter in the life history of 

 this interesting and valuable species, it is at pres- 

 ent impossible to foretell. Judging by the past, 

 and the indications of the present, the Alaskan 

 Fur Seal is doomed to practical annihilation, but 

 not total extinction. Let us hope, however, that 

 even yet the statesmen of the United States, 

 England, Canada and Japan will join in the 



