Nov. ii, 1911-] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
715 
The Pribilof Fur Seal Herd. 
Ax the forty-first annual meeting of the Amer¬ 
ican Fisheries Society, held last month, Dr. 
Charles H. Townsend, director of the New York 
Aquarium, one of the first living authorities on 
the fur seal, and a member of the advisory board 
of the fur seal service, read an interesting paper 
about the Pribilof seal herd, and the prospects 
of its increase. 
As a result of a convention, signed by repre¬ 
sentatives of the United States, Great Britain, 
Russia and Japan, ratified by the United States 
Senate, pelagic sealing has been brought to an 
end. The contracting parties have agreed to 
prohibit their vessels from engaging in this in¬ 
dustry, and to close their ports against all ves¬ 
sels connected with the operations of pelagic 
sealing. 
The total loss of seals from the North Pacific 
herds through pelagic sealing is estimated at 
about 3,000,000, and since of this catch a large 
proportion consisted of females, the effect on the 
breeding stock of the Pribilof and Commander 
Islands was disastrous. 
Because the fur seal industry for many years 
was the subject of international controversy, the 
Pribilof herd, especially, has been studied long 
and carefully by commissions of British and 
American naturalists, and the facts respecting 
the life of the fur seal cannot be questioned. 
Based as they are upon prolonged inquiry by 
representatives of the two countries most in¬ 
terested, they have been mutually accepted only 
after keen criticism from both sides. The re¬ 
sult of this study is that the natural history of 
the fur seal is better understood in detail than 
that of any other wild mammal. 
In considering any scheme of management of 
this animal upon its natural breeding ground, 
the polygamous habit of the fur seal is the prin¬ 
cipal fact to be dealt with. Each mature male 
controls from one to one hundred females, the 
harems averaging about thirty. The surplus of 
male seals, too young to break in upon the breed¬ 
ing ground and hold their own there, have al¬ 
ways been killed for commercial purposes. These 
do not attain the requisite size, weight and cour¬ 
age to establish harems of their own until about 
seven years of age. 
The mature males hold their positions on the 
breeding grounds by fighting ability. They do 
not fear their neighbors, nor even men, and dur¬ 
ing the breeding season it is dangerous for men 
to attempt to enter the rookeries. In their fight¬ 
ing, the males wound each other severely, and 
in struggling for the possession of a female, the 
latter may be severely wounded, or even killed. 
This fighting is going on all the time and many 
of the very young seals are trampled to death. 
It is believed by naturalists that the furious 
fighting of the males on the breeding grounds 
constituted one of nature’s checks to the un¬ 
limited increase of the race. Before the dis¬ 
covery of the Pribilof Islands, the breeding 
grounds of the seals were no doubt frequently 
invaded by hordes of mature males, and when 
this took place, a very considerable proportion 
of the young of the year, and very many adult 
females, were no doubt destroyed. It is confi¬ 
dently believed that the natural reduction of the 
male surplus for commercial purposes since the 
discovery of the islands has greatly reduced the 
turmoil on the rookeries during the breeding 
time, and that thus a relatively larger propor¬ 
tion of .young seals grow to adults. 
Since pelagic sealing, which destroyed so many 
breeding females, has been done away with, an 
annual expansion of the breeding grounds may 
be looked for. Yet the male stock of the island 
must be watched with care, and its numbers kept 
within safe bounds, for an increase of fighting 
males in the rookeries at a time when the stock 
of females has reached the lowest ebb in the 
history of the islands would greatly endanger 
the new-born young. A resolution to provide for 
the suspension of all seal killing on the Pribilof 
Islands for a period of fifteen years was intro¬ 
duced in the Flouse of Representatives last 
August, and may come up for consideration when 
Congress convenes. Its passage in many ways 
would be unwise, but especially because of the 
danger of a rapid increase in fighting male seals. 
Criticism of the present administration of the 
islands has been made, but the critics are men 
who have not been on the island for twenty 
years, backed up by men who have not been 
there at all. These opinions are of little value, 
for those who knew the fur seal islands twenty 
years ago cannot appreciate the investigation re¬ 
cently made about the fur seals. 
Efforts are likely to be made to reduce the 
loss through the hook worm, Uncinaria, found 
on the sand patches within the limits of several 
of the rookeries. Dr. Townsend says that “with 
our present knowledge of the- life history of the 
fur seal there is no reason why our valuable 
herd should not only rapidly increase in size, 
but under wise management, actually exceed in 
numbers the great herd occupying the Pribilof 
Islands at the time of their discovery.’’ 
One of the chief factors, however, to bring 
about so desirable a result will be the limiting the 
number of adult males allowed to enter the rook¬ 
eries. 
The photographic records of the Board of Fur 
Seal Service show that except for one or two 
seasons there has always been a sufficient sur- 
p'us of male seals adjacent to each rookery. The 
photographic records of the Bureau of Fisheries 
disprove any claim that too many surplus male 
seals have been killed. 
A Hunter Naturalist on the Yukon.* 
“The mountain sheep of America are among 
the noblest of our wild animals. Their pursuit 
leads the hunter into the most remote and inac¬ 
cessible parts of the wilderness and calls into 
p'ay his greatest skill and highest qualities of en¬ 
durance.’’ 
This opening paragraph of Mr. Sheldon’s book 
defines the plan and purpose of this extremely 
*The Wilderness of the Upper Yukon, A Hunter’s 
Exploration for Wild Sheep in Sub-Arctic Mountains. 
By Charles Sheldon. Illustrated. New York. Chas. 
Scribner’s Sons. Price, $3.00 net. 
handsome, interesting and valuable volume. It 
is a study of the wild sheep of northern North 
America, written by one who has had more prac¬ 
tical experience with American wild sheep than 
any other hunter. Keen sportsman, good hunter 
and tireless traveler that Mr. Sheldon is, these 
are only some of the qualifications that make his 
book so interesting and so valuable. Besides this 
he is a naturalist of close observation and of 
great caution. Long association with some of 
the most competent mammalogists and fieid natu¬ 
ralists of the country have taught him to see the 
matters that pass under his eye and to draw just 
conclusions about them. 
The regions chiefly discussed in this book are 
drained by the MacMillin and Pelly rivers and 
include the Ogilvie Rockies, the Selwyn Rockies 
and Glenlyon mountains. Most of this country, 
when Mr. Sheldon entered it, was untrodden by 
the foot of white man or Indian, and most of 
it was a great game country, even though game 
was not always found at once. During portions 
of the various trips here described, the author 
was accompanied by F. C. Selous, the African 
hunter; W. H. Osgood, of the Biological Survey, 
and Carl Rungius, the animal painter. Besides 
Mr. Sheldon’s excellent photographs, those taken 
by Osgood and Rungius and paintings by the 
latter have been freely used in illustrating the 
book, as have also the photographs made by some 
other friends. 
The time occupied by these trips extended over 
the years 1904 and 1905. Great distances were 
covered, high mountains scaled, and extraordi¬ 
nary hardships endured, though to these last 
little reference is made in the book. The preface 
contains an account of the equipment used in 
the journeys, describing the author’s shelter, 
bedding, clothing, arms and utensils and food. 
All this material is of extreme value to anyone 
who contemplates travel in the northern wilder¬ 
ness. Besides the twenty chapters into which 
the book is divided, of which ten are devoted 
to the travel of 1904, nine to that of 1905 and 
one to remarks on some animals of Yukon Ter¬ 
ritory, there are five appendices and an index. 
The book is profusely illustrated. 
In the summer of 1904 with Messrs. Osgood 
and Rungius the author started with a pack train 
to work the country drained by Coal Creek, to 
look for sheep. Somewhat later they were joined 
by Selous. At first little game was seen, and the 
travel on foot, dragging pack horses, was hard 
and wearisome. In some of the streams they 
found grayling which took the fly readily “but 
with no snap, just rising to the surface to grasp 
it in a sluggish manner, and once hooked they 
have no more play than a chub.” These were 
thus quite different from the graylings of the 
Rocky Mountains which in 'summer give pretty 
play, though perhaps never so strong as that of 
some other game fish. 
At last game was found—distant sheep—but 
before any were secured, Mr. Sheldon discovered 
and stalked a bear and cub, and having killed 
the mother, approached it, intending if possible 
to capture the cub for the New York Zoological 
Park. He crept within six feet of it, trying to 
noose the beast with a line made from his belt 
and the straps from the camera and his glasses, 
when suddenly it caught his wind and swiftly 
ran away up the mountain slope. Up to that 
time it had been rather curious than alarmed. 
(Continued on page 728.) 
