FUR SEALS OF BERING SEA 469 
cern. The mistake is in the implication that the order of the depart- 
ment has anything to do with this condition. As a matter of fact the 
greatly depleted condition of the herd of fur seals is due to an entirely 
different cause fully demonstrated and easily understood. 
The fur seal gets all its food in the open sea at great distances from 
land. It resorts to the land only to bring forth and nourish its young 
to self-dependence. It is resident for this purpose on certain islands 
in Bering Sea from May to November. ‘The mother seal goes 150 to 
200 miles from the rookery to find her food, leaving her young behind, 
returning to nurse it and again go away to feed. With the storms of 
winter all classes of animals leave the islands and make a long migra- 

A Youne Buti FuR SEAL. 
tion down through the Pacific Ocean to the latitude of Southern Cali- 
fornia, returning slowly along the coast. 
It had been the custom of the Indians of the northwest coast of 
America from the earliest times to go out in their canoes a day’s journey 
to hunt with the spear stragglers from the migrating herd on its north- 
ward journey. It was a precarious business and the number of animals 
taken was unimportant. In 1879, however, sailing vessels began to be 
used to take the Indians and their canoes out to the main body of the 
herd and to enable them to follow its course. This new form of sealing 
was very successful. The fleet grew in numbers and the catch multi- 
plied until it reached the total of 140,000 skins in a single season. The 
operations of the fleet gradually extended over the entire migration 
