Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-11-01
HABITS or THE FUR SEALS!


with HAIR the.world to Choose from They
Stick to Two Little Islands.
The fur seal (its name should be fur
ry sea lion) is the most celebrated of
all our fur~bearers. and the United
States government has been as active
in protecting,it from destructian as it
was Indifferent to the fate of the buffa-
10 millions. If our great international
dispute with England and Canada over
the fur seal had arisen seventy years
ago, before the days of peaceful arbi-
tration, there would surely have been
war over it. Nor is our interest in
our fur seal to be wondered at when
we stop to consider that from 1870 to
1890 our national treasury received
81, 600, 900 from the Alaska Commercial
Co. as royalty on the animals killed
(six-sevenths of the purchase price of
Alaska). When to this we add the
amount received in twenty percent.
import duty on the dressed skins as
they come back to us from the En-
glish dyers, the total revenue de-
rived from the fur seal in twenty
years amounts to the enormous sum of
s., 500, 900. Such an animal was worth
saving from destruction. No other
quadruped ever became such bone of
contention betw cen two great nations
for a long period, the discussion wind
ing up with high and mighty confer
ence of arbitration.
AS usual, the whole trouble arose
through the greediness of few ire
sponsible and lawless individuals. The
sealers of the Pacific coast insisted up
on taking fur seals by shooting Their
in the open sea, by which wasteful
process seven were lost for every three
secured. But if it were not for tho
loss of money revenue derived from
this animal, it is quite certain the gov
eminent would have allowed the waste
full slaughter to go on until the last
seal was dead.
The fur seal is not true seal by any
means, but a sea lion, with naked, pad
dle-shaped fippers and tiny ears. It
is about two-thirds the size of the
Zalophus, and is therefore the smallest
member of the sealion family. Mr..
Elliott gives the average length of
the full-grOwn male animal as six feet
from nose to tail, and weight from
three hundred and fifty to five hun
dred pounds. The average length of
the adult female is trife over four
feet, and weight from sixty-two to sew
enty-five pounds. When dry, the coat
is of a dark, steel-gray color, and only
the course, stiff outer hair is visible.
Underneath this lies a dense coat of
which lies all the value of the skin. In
preparing the pelt, the coarse outer
hair is entirely removed, and the un-
DERIVING fur is dyed a shiny, lustrous
black. and sheared down very evenly.
For some mysterious reason, we, the
people of Yankee ingenuity" are
actually unable to dye seal fur success
fully, and this work is from sheer neces-
sity sent to England. When it comes
back, there is high rate of duty to
pay, which in addition to the original
royalty of s1O.2e paid to the govern
ment by the North American CONNER
cia1 Co. for every skin taken, the
very long bill of transportation charges,
labor. and profits all along the line,
from the back of the seal to that of the
fortunate wearer, accounts for the
price of from $3.50 to $500 on seal-slxin
cloak.
In its habits the fur seal is remark
able creature. With 5000 miles Of
coast to land upon if it chose, this
strange and perverse animal now re-
fuses to set fipper upon any portion of
the whole North American continent,
island or mainland, save the two little
dots of land in Behring sea. st. Paul
and st. George islands, known to the
world collectively as the Pribylof is
lands. st. Paul is by ii miles, and
ST. George is only So by ID miles.
And yet, when Mr.. Elliott made his
careful and elaborate surveys of all the
''rookeries," or herding-grounds, on
those islands, in July, 1873, and labori-
ously calculated the number of their
fin-footed inhabita nts, he found there
the astonishing number of 8, 193, 42O fur
seals Like sheep in pen, they actual
ly crowded one another on the sloping
shores of sand, or water-worn boulders,
or tables of slaty-blue basalt. Each
burly old male appears a giant beside
the females and young males gathered
around him.-W. T. Hornaday, in st
49,