Evening star., 1896-12-01


the other seals are obliged to make fire.
Quent excursions to the fishing banks. In
like manner. after the salmon leave the
ocean. enter the rivers and commence their
long journey to the spawning grounds, they
eat nothing. but maintain their strength on
the fat with which they were fortifying
themselves while at sea, together with the
supply of nourishment from the disintegra-
tlon Of the oil-bearing tissues surrounding
the ovarian and spermatic parts. which be-
gil as soon as the fish enter the streams.
Aside from the destruction of the fe-
males and young by sealing in Bering sea,
the animals are disturbed or harassed at a
time when they have sought seclusion to
rear their young. Already a reStlessness
and change in the habits of the seals
nave been observed which are Indications
or the breaking up of the herd. The use of
firearms for killing seals in Bering sea be-
ing prohibited by law, the spear has been
substituted. The silent destruction of the
latter instrument does not frighten the
seals, and its aim Is more certain and dead
ly than the rife or shotgun. The warning
noise OF the firearm renders the seals more
shy and wary as the season progresses but
with the spear the slaughter of unsuspi-
cious animals continues uninterruptedly
from the commencement to the end of the
season As proof of this. it is only nee
cssary to cite the wonderful catch of the
scaling schooners this year by means of
the spear. Notwithstanding the compare
tive unfamiliarity of most of the crews
with the use of the spear the number of
seals secured by the pelagic sealers was
greater than ever before, and the catch is
almost certain to increase year by year. as
the men become more dexterous in hand
ing the spear. provided the supply of seals
holds out. Instead therefore. of the prohi-
bition of firearms in Bering being a
serious restriction on the depredations of
he sealers ii really aids them and renders
the looker:es even more liable to rapid
dec!maticn than they were under previous
regulations.
Predatory Sealing.
1T is reported that the catch of seals by
predatory sealers in 1894 was in the neigh
borhood of 10J.O0e OF this humber about
$1,000 seals were taken from the herds be-
longing the Asiatic shores of the North
Pacific ocean and the remainder, 5000.
from the Alaskan herd. In the previous
year the seals secured from the herd rem
dezvousing at the Pribilof Islands number
ed about 5000. and in 1892 about 25.uO0.
OF the seals from the Alaskan rookeries
taken by pelagic sealers in 1884. about 80
per cent were killed by vessels clearing
from Victoria, B. c., and 20 per cent by YES
sells from United States ports
The prohibition of pelagic sealing be
tween May l and July 81. during which
time the seals are moving northward off
the coasts of the United States. British Co.
lumbia and southeast Alaska and entering
Bering sea. necessarily concentrated the
operations of the sealers on Bering sea
that is, during the breeding season. The
numbers of seals killed beyond the sixty
mile zone in Bering sea between August l
and August II. 1894. were large. and per-
haps 10 or 80 per cent were nursing females
that had left their pups on the Pribilof
Islands and gone for food to the cod banks
lying from 75 to 2c0 miles from the rook
cries. The death of a female seal under
these circumstances meant also the death
of her young by starvation. 1t is therefore
evident that more harm is done to the seal
herd in the few weeks of sealing in August
than at any other time.
Permission was given by the Treasury
Department to the lessees of the seal is
lands to kill 10000 young male seals in 1884.
Notwithstanding that only 1900 seals had
been killed there during each of the pre-
Ceding wears and only 1900 and 20.'no. re-
spectively. during the third and fourth
years before against 100,G0 annually for
n any years without any detriment to the
herd before the ravages of the poacher be
gam, the lessees were able to obtain only
1000 marketable skins of young male
seals.
THE preservation of the Alaskan fur seal
under existing conditions and regulations
rests on the very slender contingency of the
prevalence of tempestuous weather during
the month of August. Two or three weeks
of good weather at this time. by permitting
tie SealerS to operate without interruption
outside the sixty-mie zone and on the feed
ing grounds Of the female seals, mean the
ultimate and rapid destruction of the seal
Eerd on the Pribilof Islands.
The Definite Alternatives.
Tine Bering sea question, when stripped
of the maze of minor points and diplomatic
I,saEes incident to its discussion and al
justment. offers the following definite al
ternat;ves OF settlement:
Il. Shall the United States government
effectua1ly and forever terminate this in
ternational dispute by absolutely ami
hilating the Alaskan seal herd as the ami
mails arrive on the seal islands? or () shall
the United States permit the pelasic poach-
ers of British Columbia to destroy the seals
on their way to the rookeries and in the
vicinity, and thus ultimately destroy the
legitimate industry of killing selected seals
on the islands? or G0 will the British gov
ernmept enact laws to protect an industry
which Is now generally conceded IN Ameri-
ca to have from the outset been of more
commercial interest to Great Britain than
to the United States?
The first proposition may seem needless
ly harsh and cruel, but the action indIca ted
is indeed humane and Is fully warranted by
the facts that no amount of protection un-
der existing regulations is adequate to pre-
serve the seal herd and that the patrol of
BerinS see by American naval and revenue
vessels does not prevent the havoc wrought
by the pelagic hunters in killing annually
25,Oo CT 10000 nursing female seals and
leaving their pups to ole OF starvation be-
sides sacrificing the same number of un-
bern seals. No one who has mad the op-
portunity to visit the seal islands during
the breeding season and witness the dis
ueSsinG spectacle of thousands Of young
seals In various stages of starvation will
1all TO acknowledge the :nerciieSs barbarity
of pelaSic sealing and the humane principle
involved in the proposition to wipe out the
n hnrT