332 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
Dr. G. Dallas Hanna says," referring to this question, that dispatches in the daily 
press indicate that the figures as to the number of fur seals killed at sea under the 
treaty provisions are assuming proportions little short of alarming. Of course, 
official information as to the illegal killing and disposal of the skins can not be 
obtained, but the loss to the herd, especially as such a large percentage of the seals 
thus killed undoubtedly consists of gravid females, can readily be appreciated. 
If conditions are thus unsatisfactory on the American side there is no reason to 
believe that they are better on the Asiatic side, since in view of the peculiar bunching 
of the seals there, as stated above, the losses are probably proportionately greater. 
If there is ground for believing that the mainstay class of the PribUof herd has been 
reduced in a single season by over 1 per cent,^^ the losses to the Commander Islands 
herd presumably exceed that figure considerably. The future prospects for the 
Russian fur-seal herd are thus less bright than for the American herd. The annual 
mortality is almost certainly greater, hence the recuperative power of the herd is 
correspondingly less. 
This condition can be remedied only by a more effective control at sea according 
to Article VII of the treaty, both during the spring migration and the breeding season 
of the seals, as well as by a strict enforcement of Article IV. With regard to the 
latter, the only rational remedy would be the revocation of the privilege of the 
aborigines to take seals at sea, as suggested by Dr. Hanna. 
" Report of U. S. Commissioner of Fislieries, 1921 (1922), Appendix VI, p. 110. 
1! Hanna, op. cit. 
