The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1895-04-27
DISCRIMINATING THE SEALS.
At the prsssn. Bate They WIN Soon u

Az CA AhVy VIZ SSOAA ~
Extinct.
Washington. April 23.-one interesting
report from a nava. officer who had a
greatadeal to doswith the Behring sea pa
Htrol, has not yet.been published. The Off
Ger VINO issued h report is Commander
Clark, at the time in charge of the Mo-
hican. He was directed by Secretary Her
bert to make sueh observations in regarSs
to such different points as would add to
the fund of information regarding the fur
seals and their treatment. Commander
Clark finds hat his observations regard
ing the habits of fur seals at sea confirms
the reports published by naturalists and
others who haye made seal life a study.
Secretary Herbert asked especially that
observations be la of-thes rookeries, the
agents of the treasury department and the
North American Commercial company at
the Pribyloff islands having represented
that the seals were disturbed when the
visitors We're near the rookeries.
Commander Clark continues: Upon one
occasion j was taken, with several Off
GERS, to points where we could overlook
the rookeries, nnd, though We approached
with caution and scarcely showed our
selves above the rock, two stampedes oc-
Cured. But the great reduction that had
been mac in the size of the herd could be
seen at once. Rookeries, or portions of
rookeries. that had once been thickly COW
cred We're now abandoned, and those still
reSorted to had groups OF seals scattered
here there over slope, which they Were
once said to nav w in masses. 1t
seemed incredible that this herd had ever
been able to furnish 10000 males : year
and 1t was difficult to beieve that more
than that number now existed. IL may be
hat the taking n WaVr pf Sn many males
annually has had an injurious effect upon
the vitality and natural increase. and that
the life of the Pribyloff herd has already
been Slapped. but If its numbers today
reach half a million. five years more of
sealing under the conditions imposed by
The award Will, ! h believe, suffice for its de-
~struction, or will at least reduce it to a
remnant not worth considering.
Upward of $1,000 seals We're captured
this year in Behring sea after July 81, and
of these nearly $4,000 were females. A
careful estimate made early in September
Shove that $500 pups had already died of
starvation in the rockeries, and that about
an equal number would later perish In the
same miserable manner, half of them be-
Ing females. About SO, 600 were lost and the
reproductive power of the herd has been
lowered from 10 to % per cent. The sue
cess that has attended the sealing this
year and the knowledge That has been OBJ
tanned by methods that can he followed
and of grounds that may be reSorted To
adYantageously will probably double the
number of vessels engaged, and increase
the catch pro~portionatcly.
The loss. as before, aiil fall where it
Is most to be dreaded. i. e., upon the fes
males. While the disparity in the number
of each sex taken has been determined,
tha ,nD sans fn. Z, ,r1 ,.t- l.. - ., w. .-..-
opinion the male seals who are not able to
to fight their way on the rookeries Called
bachelors at the islands,, retire as far as
they are compelled to by the bulls in pos
session and no further. while the females
who have young t. suckle leave when im-
~pSeGnated for the feeding grounds, which
seen most unfortunately to he well out.
side of the prohibited zone. 1t was, OF
course, not foreseen when the award was
signed by the tribune of arbitration thar
a slaughter so destructive to the life of
the herds could be carried on under its
provisions or that one of its results would
be or so cruel a nature that anything an
preaching would not lie tolerated in n
stock raising community. 1t is fitting 10
remark here that a starving seal pup will
live nearly six weeks.
While sealing was only permitted out
side OF Behring sea, the catch may have
been as great, or even greater, but it was
more equally divided between the sexes,
and if a pup was lost when a female was
killed. then 1T had not yet been born.
If" adds the commander, 1.-THE pelagic
sealer is to secure all the profits to be
made during the few years tina he re-
quires to exterminate the herd, it would
seem to be more in the interest of human
lily, as well as sound policy, to anticipate
his action