A Fish or an Animal 161 



Japan Sea, now Japanese, is a small rookery of a third 

 species, Callorhinus curilensis. This fur seal has the inner 

 fur yellowish white instead of dark brown, like the others, 

 and it feeds in summer in the Japan Sea, instead of the open 

 ocean. Among the Kurito Islands (Usushir, Srednoi, Rai- 

 koke and Broughton) were once small rookeries of this 

 Japanese species, but in the early days these were all de- 

 stroyed by American marauders. 



In the South Pacific and Atlantic are numerous scattered 

 rookeries, all of them nearly destroyed by lawless raiding. 

 The fur seals of this region belong to another genus, Arcto- 

 cephalus, quite distinct from Callorhinus, the genus inhabit- 

 ing the north. 



The only salvation of any of these herds lies in an inter- 

 national game law which shall prevent the killing of the 

 females. As the females and young males cannot be dis- 

 tinguished in the water, and as more than half of those on 

 the summer feeding grounds are females, gravid — and also 

 with a dependent pup on shore — common decency and the 

 perpetuation of the herd demand the absolute prohibition of 

 all killing at sea. In the same way, as killing at sea is a 

 legal right of Canadian and Japanese sea-rangers, the 

 United States and Russia must be prepared to extinguish 

 by purchase this vested right of mischief. 



