Mexico weekly ledger., 1897-08-19
a SEAL BOUNTY.
massachusetts Gives 63 q Head For the
Fish Eating Hair Seals.

Eassachusetts Gives % q Head For the
Fish Eating Hair Seals.
To a good many persons who live
inland and have nothing which
brings them to the coast much II
would be a surprise to learn that
there T any seals along the coasts
of Massachusetts,, and especially
that they r sufficiently numerous
and destructive to have made it ad.
visable to place a bounty on them
In order that their number may be
kept down. To the ordinary dweller
in the inland districts the seal Is an
animal connected in a vague way
with frozen chimes and information.
al arbitration. These are the fun
seals, which provide such of the
sealskin sacks as are not made in
the plush factories, but the seals Of
1.-THE New England coasts are crea.
lures of an entirely different stamp.
Their skins r heavy and tough
and are of no use for making sacks,
unless they are mail sacks, and they
are such useless and unpleasant ami.
mails that nc one would go to the
trouble of killing them if 1t were
not for the bounty which has been
placed on their heads by the Off
Gals.
This bounty is s. a head, and it Ia
paid because there are so many of
the seals, and they have such an
Unsuitable appetite for fish that if
they were allowed to increase and
multiply and train up their children
to eat fish they would have a disas-
trous effect on the shore fisheries.
1t has been proved by experiments
that a seal with a normal appetite
will eat from 90 to 25 pounds of fish
a day, and it a be seen that at this
rate it does not take a very large
number of seals to produce a fish
famine of no small proportions.
Last year the county commission.
ers of Essex county alone paid boun.
ties aggregating $3.50 for seals, which
would mea that $50 were killed, as
the bounty is SO q head. This, It Is
probable, does not represent more
than half of those actually destroy
ed, as only about half are recovered,
for the eason that, unless killed at
once, they nearly always manage to
reach the water when shot and sink
to the bottom when they are dead.
It is probable that there are along
the coast of Essex county 1 1000 seals
at least, and these, figuring 25
pounds of fish a day for each seal,
would use up 9,125, 900 pounds of
fish i'll the year, or enough to sup
ply 175, 900 persons with four fish
balls every Sunday through the en-
tire year. This only represents a
small part of the fish which would
be consumed by the Massachusetts
seals in the curse of the year, as
they are thick all along the south
shore until the sand begins at the
head of Cape Cod, for the seals are
not found to any extent where the
shore is sandy. They prefer the
rocks.
These seals are what are known
as dog seals and are entirely differ
ent in outward appearance from the
fur seals of the north. Their skin is
smooth and leathery, a good deal
like that of a porpoise, only tough
In their general shape, however,
they I a good deal like their north
ern congeners, having the same
round head and large, soulful eyes,
which make it a matter of consider
able difficulty for a tender hearted
person to shoot one, even for s..
There is no regular method Of kill
ing the seals, and it Is almost all
done fortuitously, and by persons,
usually sportsmen, who are out for
some other aso than the deliber-
ate slaughter of seals for mercenary
purposes. Most of the killing is done
the spring, when the seals are
and come out on the rocks
n large numbers. Even then, how
ever, it is not at all an easy matter
to kill them, as they are very shy,
and unless killed at the first shot
wriggle off into the water and
lie there, sinking to the bottom.
The only time at which there was
any organized sealing expedition
was several years ago, when about
20 seals got up into a river back Of
Plum island, near Newburyport. A
party of enterprising fishermen
a seine across the mouth
If the river, and at low tide went
md killed all the seals with clubs.
Outside of the bounty the seals
ire of little value. There is a good
leal of oil in them, as, on account
If their unrestricted indulgence in
ish, most Of them r very fat, and
heir skin is worth something for
Gather. The bounty was originated
n 1888, when 1t was placed at 81 a
read, but as it was found that the
eals were increasing In number it
vas raised to 50, which is the sum
It present paid.-Boston Transcript.