FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 26, 1898. 
consequence the trout scattered, and that particular 
stretch of water afforded no better fishing than the rest 
bf the stream. 
. Countryman's reputation as a lawyer was made in 
those parts, and every one said that any one who could 
"come up" with that i-apscallion of a miserly, domineer- 
ing old McShane in any such way deserved credit, suc- 
cess and all the consequent good things in this life 
usually hankered after by man; 
Charles Cristadoro. 
The World'is Seal Fisheries* 
BY C. H, TOWNSEffD. 
[Read before the Fislieries Congress at Tampa, Fla.] 
In wasting our resomxes we not only lose the supply 
of food or useful articles derived from them, but we 
break tip the organized industries by which means our 
products are preserved and distributed. When we permit 
the destruction of a fishery it means, therefore, that we 
not only do without the products of that fishery, but 
we injure the vessel builders, manufacturers of apparatus, 
transporters, dealers, and the whole line of persons di- 
rectly or indirectly connected with it. Civilization needs 
every source of supply and every commercial iudttstry 
it can get. The history of the world's seal fisheries is 
one of wasted resources. Commercially seals are the 
most important of carnivorous animals. They are of 
world-wide distribution. Their purstiit has been car- 
ried on in the Antarctic regions almost as extensively 
as in the Arctic. The fisheries of the Antarctic are now 
exhausted. 
Although we have, during the past ten years, been 
hearing a great deal about the fur seal fisheries, they 
are not the only seal fisheries of importance. 
The Newfoundland seal fishery is one about 100 years 
old. It is prosecuted with a large number of men and 
a great number of vessels. It appears to have reached 
its height about thirty or forty years ago, when there 
were about 400 sailing vessels employed and some 13,000 
men. Since that time the catch of seals has decreased 
and has varied greatly from year to year. The annual 
value of the fishery now is not more than $600,000. The 
sailing vessels have been replaced by steamers, whose 
numbers have decreased to about twenty, employing 
about 4,000 or 5,000 men. This fishery is based on the 
Greenland seal, or harp seal, which has a very wide dis- 
tribution, and is probablj^ the most abundant of any seal 
species. It lives upon the drifting Arctic ice, and oc- 
curs from Newfoundland to the head of Baffin's Bay, 
and from Greenland all tlie way across to the perpetual 
ice fields lying to the north of Ettrope. The greatest 
number of seals taken in any one year was in 1844, when 
the number reached nearly 700,000. During recent years 
the catch has varied from 130,000 to nearly 400,000. The 
catch in 1896 was 187,000. The vessels now employed 
are steamers of large size, some of them 500 tons burden. 
The method of taking the seals is to find their breeding 
places on the drifting ice, when the crews of the vessels 
land and club the younger seals, which do not take to 
the water until they are two or three months old. The 
bulk of the catch is made up of young seals. Owing to 
the fact that these seals are taken upon the ice fields, and 
that the ice fields are so broken up at times by storms 
that the seals are difficult to get, and the vessels engaged 
in the fishery subjected to so many dangers, the annual 
catch of seals is subjected to natural limitations. In the 
larger steamers the crews number from 100 to 300 men. 
As the fishery reached its greatest development, and the 
steamers began to replace the sailing vessels, it became 
necessary to place restrictions ttpon the slaughter of 
the seals. At the present time sailing vessels do not leave 
on their voyages before March 10, and the period in 
which the seals are taken upon the ice lasts a little longer 
than a month. Notwithstanding the fact that the palmy 
days of this fishery are over, it will undoubtedly continue 
to be an important one. The regulations now in force 
restrict the hunting season, while the vast extent of ice 
fields upon which the seals breed, together with the 
diffi^culties attending their capture, will prevent the com- 
mercial extermination of the seal. It has been, and 
continues to be, the most important fishery of Newfound 
land. 
The capture of this species of seal is also participated 
in hy a number of vessels from the north of Europe, seals 
being taken on the Arctic ice and about the islands of 
Jan Mayen. 
We naturally associate the seal fisheries with the sea, 
but one of the most important seal fisheries of the world 
is that of the Caspian Sea, which has long been carried 
on in this brackish lake, which has no natural com- 
munication with the sea. The seal which is the basis 
of this fishery is a species peculiar to the locality, and 
no doubt found its way to its present habitat in very 
ancient times. About twenty years ago the average catch 
in the Caspian Sea was slightly over 100,000. The seals 
are taken somewhat after the manner of the Greenland 
seals, as they resort in the winter to the ice in the north- 
ern portion of the Caspian Sea, Avhere their young are 
born. They are also taken on certain islands, and the 
usual method of killing them is with clubs. The Rus- 
sian Government derives an annual income from the 
sale of permits for the hunting of these seals. The fish- 
ery is apparently on a good basis. Notwithstanding the 
presence of vast seal herds, the ordinary fisheries o"f the 
Caspian are to-day, and always have been, very pro- 
ductive. 
Another remarkably situated seal fishery is that of 
Lake Biakal, in the heart of Siberia, but the range of 
the seals is restricted, and their numbers here are too 
small ever to have reached much importance. 
Sea Elephant and Walrtrs. 
One of the exhausted seal fisheries is one based upon 
the sea elephant, or elephant seal, that once abottnded 
on many of the islands off the southern portion of the 
South American continent and the Antarctic islands gen- 
erally. It existed on its favored breeding grounds in 
great numbers, and for many years ships visited these 
localities and killed large numbers of the anitnals for 
their oil, the skins having almost no value. No pre- 
cautions were ever taken to preserve the race, and this 
species has now bpcohie very rare. The taking of sea 
elephants as an industry has died out. The animal was 
very large, the males sometimes reaching the length of 
20fL A. northern offshoot of this race of seals formerly 
occurred along the coast of westerri North America 
from the islands of Southern California to the lower part 
of the peninsula of Lower California. For many years 
it was the basis fof- a sealing industi-y of no small im- 
I>ortance, but was abandoned many years since on ac- 
count of the practical extermination of the species in 
consequence of ihdisci-iniinatc slaughter. 
The walrus, which is of circumpolar distribution, is 
another seal tliat has been the basis of a fishery of some 
importance from time to time, but the species has been 
exterminated from all of its more accessible resorts, and 
is now found only in scattered hiding places in the Arc- 
tic. Less than a dozen years ago there were important 
numbers in the Bering Sea along the north shore of 
the Alaska peninsula, but they were speedily killed off, 
and are now found there as stragglers. At the time of 
my first visit to Bering Sea, a dozen years ago. I learned 
of 1,600 walruses being slaughtered on a sandbar in one 
day, the whole number being washed into the sea by an 
unusually high tide, and thus lost to the improvident 
hunters. A century ago the walrus was found in the 
Atlantic as far south as the St. Lawrence River. 
Walrus ivories continue to reach the world's markets 
in small_ quantities, but the supply in quantities of com- 
mercial importance can no longer be reckoned on. 
These are merely the principal hair-seal fisheries, 
based on species still sufficiently plentiful to warrant their 
capture systematically. There are minor seal fisheries 
in connection with nearly all other species of seals scat- 
tered about the world. Many of these species are of 
restricted range, and their unregulated pursuit has led 
to their practical destruction from an economic point 
of view. 
For_SeaI Fisheries. 
The various species of Antarctic fur seals were found 
about the southern shores and islands of south Africa, 
Australia, New Zealand and the islands of the Antarctic. 
About the close of the last century a traffic sprang up 
in the skins of fiir seals, and as a result of many voyages 
made to those distant regions enormous numbers of fur 
seals were taken. PVom this time on there was no 
respite for the fur seal as long as it could be found in 
numbers worth taking. The various varieties exist to-day 
as mere remnants of the great races that were once found 
in those regions. By 1830 the supply of those fur seals 
in the southern seas was nearly exhausted. In carrying 
on this fishery no discrimination was made in the char- 
acter of the seals taken; all seals whose skins were of 
any value were slaughtered, and the newly born, usually 
left on the killing grounds, died in consequence. In the 
rush for seals to the Antarctic sealing grounds the mar- 
kets were frequently glutted and much of the catch 
wasted. 
There are few parts of the world where seals of some 
species do not occur whose preservation would not re- 
sult in the world's increase of resources in skins and oil. 
With most of these species their re-establishment, even 
at this late day, would be quite within the range of possi- 
bility. As a rule, all seals breeding on dry lands return 
after their migrations to the ancient and accustomed 
breeding places with great persistence. They can seldom 
be driven away from these places, and stupidly linger 
abotit them until extermination overtakes them. So reg- 
ularly do they breed, and so certain are they of returning 
to their old grounds, that the re-establishment of the 
different species would undoubtedly result from the pro- 
tection of these places, and the result would be the 
building up of valuable seal fisheries for the future. 
One resort of the southern fur seal, the Galapagos 
Islands, lying on the equator, about 800 miles west of 
Ecuador, furnishes a striking illustration of this. Seals 
were taken from the Galapagos Islands in important 
numbers by the early voyagers. Between 1870 and 1882 
these rookeries were visited by sealers, and as far as the 
meager records which I have been able to collect from 
the sealers still living who engaged in this fishery, about 
20,000 seals were taken. The last paying voyage to the 
Galapagos Islands resulted in the killing of all the seals 
that could be found. The log book of this voyage, which 
was made by a sealer of San Francisco, is now in my 
possession. At the time of my own visit to the Galapagos 
Islands, in 1885, I was informed that there were only a 
few seals remaining about the uninhabited westerly 
islands of the archipelagoes. During the long-continued 
Bering Sea controversy, when all matters pertaining to 
the world's seal fisheries received a general overhauling, 
the history of the Galapagos seal fishery was examined^ 
btxt no one supposed that the race of seals there had 
in any degree revived. It was with the greatest surprise 
that during the past month I received from San Fran- 
cisco the log book of a vessel which had just returned 
from the Galapagos Islands with a catch of about 230 
fur seals. No one supposed that there were any seals 
left in these uninhabited and remote islands, but the 
few that had escaped the slaughter of the last voyage 
of fifteen years ago had established themselves on the 
identical rookeries from which they had been driven, 
.as comparisons of the two log books show, and the 
nucleus of a fine herd existed there unknown to any 
one. There is no doubt that it could have been devel- 
oped into an important seal fishery, if the fact had been 
known in time to prevent its destruction by raiders. It 
is quite possible that a few individuals have escaped 
this last slaughter, and that by the prompt protection of 
these rookeries by the Government of Ecuador a fish- 
ery could be established. 
Another species of fur seal and the most northerly 
offshoot of the Antarctic race of fur seals formerly in- 
habited Guadeloupe and other islands off the west coast 
of Lower California. From the scattered records that 
have been found, it appears that 15,000 seals have been 
taken there within very Recent years. During my own 
visit to Guadeloupe Islands, a few years ago, straggling 
fur seals were observed about the islands, and it is 
possible that there is a sufficient remnant to warrant 
the belief that the race could be re-established if the 
islands were properly protected by the Government of 
Mexico. 
It would be a good project to-day for some govern- 
ment to annex and protect all the inhospitable Antarctic 
islands where there are struggling fur seals remaining, 
upon which one of these profitable fisheries would in a 
few years be established. 
In all the history of Antarctic sealing there is but one 
chapter of wise management and thought for the future. 
The Government of Uruguay has, throughout all these 
years, carefully preserved the fur-seal rookeries of Lobos 
Island, at the mouth of the La Plata River. The small 
rookeries of Lobos Island represent the good resulting 
from the careful protection of the fur seals upon their 
breeding grounds and exempt from the effect of pelagic 
sealing in adjacent waters. Although it is directly in 
thfe track of Commerce, and within five miles of Mal- 
donado, a town more than 150 years old, a profitable 
seal fishery has been continued to the present time. 
Commercial sealing was carried on at Lagos Island 
prior to 1820. The present lessees of the island, oper- 
ating under the direction of the Government of Uru- 
guay, placed upon the London market, from 1873 to 
1892, 250,000 skins, or an average of about 13,000 a year, 
all these being derived from an island less than one mile 
in length. In 1888 I found the fur-seal herds of Sts. 
Peter and Paul's Island, in the Straits of Magellan, 
nearly exterminated by the hunters there, working 
among the Furgian Islands, and have no doubt that the 
supply was exhausted. 
The history of Robbin Island, in the Okhotsk Sea, 
is especially interesting in this connection. This island 
is only about 6ooyds. in length, and less than 100 in 
width, and yet incomplete records show that more than 
60,000 seals have been taken by raiders since 1870. The 
remnant of this herd has always remained to populate 
the rookery, which at the present time contains little 
more than 1,000 seals, and is protected by the Russian 
Government. 
As in the case of Robbin Island, the scattered rook- 
eries in the chain of volcanic islands stretching north- 
ward from Japan, known as the Kurds, or Smoky 
Islands, have been destroyed by raiders during recent 
years. The history of the extermination of these seals, 
as furnished me by men who engaged in the slaughter, 
is exceedingly interesting. Notwithstanding the fact 
that raids were made year after year, the scattered rem- 
nants of the herds still clung to their own breeding 
grounds. The incomplete records show that more than 
25,000 seals were taken from these islands by raiders 
since 1880. These rookeries were visited by the Fish 
Commission steamer Albatross last year, and all the 
rookeries were found to have been wiped out of con- 
tents with the exception of one, upon which there are 
about 100 seals remaining. It is believed that these will 
certainly be protected by the Japanese Government, to 
which they belong. 
There are only two other seal fisheries to be consid- 
ered, and these are the most important of our seal 
fisheries of the present time. The two most important 
outposts of the diminishing fur seal are those of the 
Pribilof and Commander islands, in Bering Sea. The 
United States and Russian governments, to which these 
islands belong respectively, have for some years past 
been engaged in a struggle to prevent the fur-seal fish- 
eries connected with these islands from being ruined. 
Upon the discovery of the islands, more than a century 
ago, seals were found in great multitudes. For many 
years they were killed indiscriminately, but the Russian 
Government finally took charge of them and directed 
the fisheries in such a way that they were regularly 
productive. The Pribilof Islands of St. Paul and St. 
George for twenty years after the accession of Alaska 
yielded to the United States Government in the taxes 
of sealskins alone more than $7,000,000, the price paid 
for the entire Territory of Alaska. About ten years 
ago the industry of pelagic sealing, or killing of seals 
in the open sea, sprang up, since which time the fish- 
eries have steadily declined. 
I shall first refer to the methods practiced by the two 
governments in utilizing the fisheries of the two groups 
of islands. 
During the winter months the seal herds migrate 
southward into the Pacific Ocean; in summer they re- 
sort to certain anciently established breeding places on 
the islands. There are about fifteen important rookeries 
on the Island of Pribilof, and a certain number of 
seals is selected from these, in accordance with the nat- 
ural habits of the animals. The natural history of the 
fur seal, briefly told, is something like this: These ani- 
mals are highly polygamous. Every adult male, or 
"see catch," as he is called, fights for the possession 
of a large number of females, the number varying from 
one dozen to 100 in extreme cases. This highly polyga- 
mous habit results in a large number of males, which 
surplus, when the rookeries were at their best cohdition, 
amounted to about 100,000 immature males a year. The 
half-grown males herd by themselves, and it is from them 
that the annual catch of seals on the seal islands has 
always been made. The United States Government has 
never allowed any disturbing of the breeding rookeries 
and has never permitted the killing of female seals. The 
breeding stock upon the islands has, therefore, remained 
undisturbed, and would, until the present time, have 
continued in its original abundance, had it not been 
for the destructive effects of pelagic sealing, which, as 
I have said, is practiced in the open sea, and permits 
of no selections being made, males and females, young 
and old, being killed indiscriminately. In ten years 
pelagic sealing, as practiced in the adjacent waters and 
in the Pacific Ocean, destroyed the value of the Pribi- 
lof Islands as a United States Government property, an 
industry for the employment of a large number of na- 
tives residing on the islands, and a profitable business 
for the American citizens to whom the islands have 
been leased. The separate rookeries on the Pribilof 
Islands of St. Paul and St. George are known as the 
Northeast Point, Polavina, Kitovi, Lukanon, Reef, Gar- 
botch, Lagoon, Tolstoi, Zapadni, North, East and Sta- 
raya Artil. Adjacent to each of these breeding rook- 
eries lie the so-called "hauling grounds" of the immature 
males, the class of seals available for killing. These 
animals are quietly surrounded, and without any diffi- 
culty whatever are driven inland, entirely away from 
the rookeries, as easily as a band of sheep. The band 
