The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-03-17
THE EuR SEAL ISLANDS.

| WASHINGTON, March 16.-Prof. Henry
! W. Elliot, of the Smithsonian Institution
an expert on the subject of seal industry
and seal killing, said today:
| ''Some idea of the character of the
slaughter of the seals, which Lord Sails
bury proposes to license by thirty-mlie
zone of pelagic prohibition in Bering sea,
may be better understood when | tell you
that the proportion of ut least sixty fe-
males TO each and every male on the breed
! ing grounds exists today, and all of the
Young males above ! year of age and under
! 6, that the law allows the killing OF on the
land--ail of them did not exceed 100000 IN
number during my survey of their condl-
ton in 1890, and am credi6ly Informed
that the treasury agents declare that this
aggregate was reduced to $4,000 last year.
SHARPLY SUMMED up, there are about 800 600
adult females, some l., 900 old bulls and not
more than 80. 900 young males going to be
found at the Pribyloff islands next
summer, against IA total of 100000 adult
females and 100000 old bulls and some
!, 200, 600 young males or killable seals
which Lieutenant Commander Maynard
and myself located on those grounds in
1874 My figures of lS12-lS14 are the only
records ever made based upon detailed or
general surveys of the numbers of fur seal
herd on those islands. They were made at
the time purposely SO that those who came
after me should be able to discover the
fact " neither the seals were increasing or
diminishing in number, and they were made
at Il time when there was uoc the slightest
interest or aim TO magnify or diminish the
numbers of the herd.
There is Il great deal of confusion in the
popular mind over the question of wheth-
err we shall or shall no eXterminate the
seal, and this confusion is what the Cana
dams are taking advantage Of Now If it
is merely a matter of saving the fur seal
from determination as a species, then that
thirty-mile zone offered by Salisbury
would suffice, provided we rigidy prevent
ed all killing on the islands, but that is not
what we are contending for; we want to
save the herds so that they shall live to
safely yield a regular supply of their sur
plus male life for the good Of all mankind
wherever choice furs are priced and worn.
The fleet now under way could and would
practically annihilate, what is now
left OF this breeding herd out
around the Pribyloff islands next
summer and fail. The slaughter go per
cent. of it being necessarily Of pregnant
and nursing mother seals) would be some
thing barbarOus and beastly, simply in-
human. While it Is true that all of the
seals would not be ut once killed, yet it is
equally certain that not enough would or
pelagic hunters to form more than mere
nucleus for rebuilding the industry The
work of such fleet would establish by
the end of November next the commercial
ruin of this anomalous and valuable in
dustry beyond ali human power to repair
that injury within the next Hteen years,
no matter what regulations were adopted
''As it stands today under the existing
modus vivendi, it is impossible for the
breeding herd to SO increase or gain in
form and number as to be capable of yield
ing safely much more surplus male life
han that needed by the Pribyloff natives
for their food and maintenance The kill
ing of the herd in the North Pacific by
this pelagic feet before it enters Bering sea
early next July will have been more than
sufficient to prevent any gain in its num-
Der on the rookeres next season, even /
though we do not kill seal on the islands,
and unless that herd as it now exists can
be permitted to grow in number, treble,
yes quadruple, in size over its form as we
behold it today, it, commercial value to
man is ruined, and is one of the most
and needless episodes in the
worlds history"