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 
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 
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 $15 that each raw skin is worth. England 
cannot reasonably be expected to quarrel 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 
F ur 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 
Drawn by J. Carter Beard. 
THE HARP SEAL. 
Young and old specimens, showing changes in pelage at different periods. 
