472 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 
and nursing females have been taken from the breeding stock of the 
herd. The skins of these animals have been marketed by the pelagic 
sealers at an average price of $15 per skin, a total loss in cash to the 
government of $3,000,000, with an actual loss through breeding possi- 
bilities of ten times this amount, as the breeding life of the female 
fur seal is at least ten seasons. 
There is abundant ground here for legitimate criticism of our gov- 
ernmental policy in dealing with this valuable industry. There is no 
occasion to invent grounds of criticism such as those urged against the 
Secretary of Commerce and Labor for a harmless detail of administra- 
tion. The responsibility does not, however, rest entirely with the 
United States. The fur seal question is an international issue. The 
flags of Japan and Great Britain protect the destructive and suicidal 
industry of pelagic sealing—an industry which is also on the verge of 
bankruptcy as a result of the failure of the herd, for it preys on its own 
capital. Russia also owns an important fur seal herd which has suf- 
fered and is suffering in exactly the same way that the herd of the 
United States has suffered and is suffering. It is the business of these 
two nations—owners of fur seal herds—to effect an understanding 
with the two nations which stand sponsor for the pelagic industry to 
the end that the wasteful slaughter may cease. 
Surely the abolition of pelagic sealing, which means the hunting of 
gravid and nursing female fur seals—exactly analogous to the hunting 
of the gravid doe or the brooding quail—is a cause which should appeal 
to and enlist the support of the sportsmen of the Camp Fire Club and 
all lovers of animals the world over. Every influence of criticism and 
assistance that can be brought to bear should be directed toward the 
four great nations—the United States, Great Britain, Russia and Japan 
—having responsibility for this matter, to the end that this valuable 
race of animals, the fur seals of Bering Sea, shall be saved to the world. 
