Forest and Stream 
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NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 
10 I Q I O i VOL. LXXIV.—No. 8. 
' ' 1 No. 127 Franklin St.. New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL: 
Copyright, 1909, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary, 
Louis Dean Speir, Treasurer, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
THE ALASKA FUR SEAL FISHERIES. 
Since the beginning of pelagic sealing, many 
years ago, the fur seal herds of the North Pacific 
have been rapidly dwindling. In the old days 
•of the Alaska Commercial Company, the annual 
catch was 100,000 skins of non-breeding bulls, 
and this made no impression -whatever on the 
herds, which tended constantly to increase. 
When, however, the practice of pelagic sealing 
began, the death ©f the nursing mothers and of 
their pups stopped the increase and then reduced 
the size of the herds. Long efforts made by the 
State Department to put an end to this indis¬ 
criminate killing accomplished little, but renewed 
attempts are now being made to do something 
for the preservation of this valuable animal. 
The management of the Alaska Fur Seal 
Fisheries was transferred to the United States 
Bureau of Fisheries more than a year ago. At 
that time .the Secretary of Commerce and Labor 
named an advisory board to recommend meas¬ 
ures intended to preserve the fur seal. 
The committee thus named consisted of 
naturalists and one or two legal advisers—Dr. 
David Starr Jordan, Dr. Leonard Stejneger, Dr. 
C. Hart Merriam, Dr. F. A. Lucas, Dr. Charles 
H. Townsend, Hon. Frank H. Hitchcock and 
Hon. Edwin W. Sims. This board after dis¬ 
cussion with the fur seal board, the commis¬ 
sioner and deputy commissioner of fisheries, the 
assistant fur seal agent and special scientific ex¬ 
pert, George A. Clark, made last November the 
following recommendations: That the agent in 
charge under the Secretary of Commerce and 
Labor shall have full power to limit or restrict 
the killing of fur seals and blue foxes on the 
Pribilof Island to any extent necessary, and that 
no specific quota be indicated in the lease. 
2. That for the present no fur seal skin 
weighing more than pounds or less than 5 
pounds shall be taken, and that not more than 
95 per cent, of the three-year-old male seals be 
killed in any one year. 
3. That the Government assume entire con¬ 
trol in all essential matters pertaining to the 
fur seals, blue foxes and natives of the island in 
general, and the lessee be restricted to the re¬ 
ceiving, curing and shipping of skins. That there 
be added to the personnel of the fur seal ser¬ 
vice a chief naturalist who shall have charge 
of the investigation of and management of the 
fur seal herd, the blue foxes and other life on 
the island, and who shall give advice to the 
agent in charge regarding the number of seals 
and foxes to be killed each season. There 
should be at least one assistant naturalist. 
5. That the agent in charge shall control all 
administrative matters, and that in case of dif¬ 
ferences of opinion between the chief naturalist 
and the agent the decision of the latter shall 
govern; that there be arranged a conference of 
scientific men and diplomats of Great Britain, 
Canada, Japan, Russia and the United States 
for consideration of the question of pelagic seal¬ 
ing as well as of an international game law to 
protect whales, walrus, sea otter and other mam¬ 
mals of the sea. 
The conference by resolution approved the 
sentiments addressed by the Commissioner of 
Fisheries to the Secretary of Commerce and 
Labor in which was urged the necessity of early 
action which will result in the stopping of 
pelagic sealing. 
From an economic as well as from a scientific 
standpoint this subject deserves the serious at¬ 
tention of everyone. If given reasonable pro¬ 
tection the fur seals will very rapidly re-estab¬ 
lish themselves; under present conditions they 
cannot survive. 
MUSKRAT PROTECTION. 
Scattered over much of North America, but 
especially on the seaboard and on the Great 
Lakes, are vast areas of marsh land which are 
the home of the muskrat. Because of its enor¬ 
mous abundance and because its fur may be used 
for a variety of purposes, this is now one of the 
most important fur-bearing animals of North 
America. Not only is its fur valuable, but its 
flesh is eaten by many people. Not very many 
years ago the French-Canadian trappers were 
almost the only people who commonly used the 
muskrat for food, but times have changed, and 
it is now a favorite dish in parts of Michigan 
and Wisconsin, and at different points on the 
Atlantic coast. 
In certain parts of the country the muskrat, 
because of its fondness for burrowing in dams 
and dikes, is heartily cursed, and in the popular 
view should be exterminated. Obviously where 
the animal is injurious it may be treated as a 
pest. But in these wide marsh lands it is a use¬ 
ful animal, for the work of trapping it gives 
employment to many men. According to D. 
E. Lantz, the tidewater region of Maryland, 
Delaware and New Jersey furnishes a large per¬ 
centage of the entire catch of muskrat fur, which 
last year amounted to 5,500,000 skins, bringing in 
to trappers no less than $1,700,000. All along 
the Southern Atlantic seaboard, from Virginia 
south to Georgia, there are vast marshes which, 
if properly protected, would produce annually a 
great crop of muskrats. 
The owners of marshes on the eastern shore 
of Maryland understand perfectly well the value 
of the fur which these lands produce. Tracts 
are leased to trappers for one-half the catch of 
fur, and, according to the returns of last year, 
these marshes produced nearly as much as ordi¬ 
nary agricultural lands adjoining them. There 
is no reason why the owners of marsh lands fur¬ 
ther south along the coast should not make their 
marshes yield profitable returns as do the Mary¬ 
land marshes. 
Maryland seems to appreciate the importance 
of wise laws for the protection of this in¬ 
dustry. In Dorchester county, for example, it 
is illegal to trap muskrats before Jan. 1 or after 
March 15, and under this restriction the product 
of fur seems to vary little from year to year. 
The animals breed several times a season and 
produce considerable litters. 
It will be well for other States to recognize 
the wastefulness of killing these animals before 
their fur is prime. We have here a creature 
which, if properly protected, would each year 
add millions of dollars to the income of the 
country without any expenditure of labor save 
only that of gathering the fur. It is worth while 
for State Legislatures to consider this. 
THE NEW ORLEANS CONVENTION. 
While the meeting in New Orleans last week 
of the various State game commissioners and 
wardens will have a salutary effect on the cause 
for which they stand, the convention was a for¬ 
tunate thing for Louisiana. The good people of 
that State and of the city of New Orleans, al¬ 
ways hospitable, but especially so during their 
annual festival,- were enabled to see and hear 
several of that body of men who have made the 
cause of fish and game protection what it is to¬ 
day. To listen to the addresses of these men, 
and to read the published reports in Louisiana 
papers, must of necessity have made converts of 
a great many persons who have, so far, regarded 
the new Fish and Game Commission of that State 
as a body hostile to all of their traditional ideas 
regarding the proprietorship in game and fish. 
Efforts have been made to bring about the abo¬ 
lition of the Louisiana Fish and Game Commis¬ 
sion, and to turn the enforcement of the game 
and fish laws over to the police juries of the 
several parishes. This would be a long step back¬ 
ward, for the people are beginning to understand 
that a change from old-time conditions is neces¬ 
sary, and if the present system of law enforce¬ 
ment is retained, presently those who denounce 
the commission will have become its supporters. 
Louisiana has so long been an open hunting 
ground, and migratory fowl have sojourned there 
in such numbers that it is hard to make the peo¬ 
ple understand that the methods employed by 
their ancestors can no longer be followed. 
