River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1894-11-15
HABITS OF The FUR SEALS.


Stick 10 Two Little Islands.
The fur seal tits 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 destruction as 1T
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 sevo nty years
ago, before the days of peaceful al.bi-
tration, there would surely have been
a 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, 100 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
IS, 300, 900. Such an animal was worth
saving from destruction. No other
quadruped ever became such bone of
contention between two great nations
for long period, the discussion wind
ing up with 4 md mighty confer
ence of arbitr ton.
As usual the whole trouble arose
through the greediuess of few ire
sponsible and lawless individuals. The
sealers of the Pacific coast insisted up
on taking fur seals by shooting the IN
in the open sea, by which wasteful
process seven were lost for every three
secured. But if it were not for the
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 flippers and tiny ears. 1t
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
bred pounds. The average length of
the adult female is a trifie 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 dense coat of
very fine and soft light-brown fur, in
which lies all the value of the skin. In
preparing the pelt, the coarse outer
hair is entirely removed, and the I'M
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 a high rate Of duty to
pay, which in addition to the original
royalty of S1O.22 paid to the govern
ment by the North American CONNER
cial 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-skin
cloak.
In its habits the fur seal is a remark
able creature With 5000 miles of
coast to land upon if it chose, this
strange and perverse animal now re-
fuses to set ripper 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 IA miles, and
ST. George is only 81 by 10 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
fn-footed inhabita nts he found there
the astonishing number of 3, 1913, 420 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. L. Hornaday, in St.
Nicholas.