Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-12-17
Washin9tun Standard
UNCLE SANS SEALS.

taken in the conference al Seal Com
mi-~i"ncr> now being held in the city
al Washington.
\ very careful study has been made
al the HE and habit, oi the seals on
account oi the dispute between tins
country and ENGLAND as t. the right
To- tahc seals III the open sea. 1t has
been found that soon after the ice
disappears from Boring Sea in the
spring the seals come up out OF the
water swimming from >outherly
direction.
The old male seals appear several
weeks before the others. As soon rs
the first come ashore they select their
favorite spots and then begins 4 con-
tinuous series of battles with the
tardy ones to maintain possession of
the ground chosen. This fighting
goes on night and day until the fe-
males arrive. Each of the males will
then collect as many of Of the females
as he can defend. The presence OF
young males, that is, those less than
about four or five years OF age, is not
tolerated at all. They live by them
selves on one side OF the main land.
The young are born on the land, and
when few weeks old are driven into
the shallow water by the mothers and
compelled to learn to swim. If born
at sea, they would Immediately drown.
Continued vigilance is the price OF
domestic sovereignty, and the father
OF his family never leaves his post OF
duty. For four months he guards his
flock faithfully without eating or
drinking. When he comes from the
sea in the spring he is enormously fat,
but in the autumn, at the close of his
long fast, he is reduced to a mere
shadow of his former self.
On the other hand, the females 60
to the sea daily in search of food,
sometimes travelling as far as hun
dred miles from home. When they
return they utter peculiar cryto at
tract the attention of their young.
This is instantly recognized and an
swered. The mother can distinguish
the voice of its own offspring, even if
in the midst of ten thousand other
young seals. She goes to it at once,
and will never pay any attention to
or permit the approach of any but her
own young,
DRIVING SEALS.
The young male seals, which live in
colonies by themselves, are the only
ones permitted by law to be killed.
They are driven like flocks of sheep
back to the killing grounds. The
taking OF moderate numbers of these
will not tend to destroy the colony.
as when fully grown each male seal
win collect family of perhaps forty
females.
Formerly the Alaska Commercial
Co. took 100000 skins each year, and
for this privilege it paid the Govern
ment $3.50 per skin. When this con-
tract expired, the Government refused
to renew it on the same terms. A
new company, called the North
America Commercial and Trading
Company, was given the privilege Of
taking seals, paying the Government
100000 per year in addition to a
tax of 1852 on every skin taken.
The colony has been so reduced in
size by pelagic sealing that only about
10000 seals are killed on the islands
each season. When the seals leave
the islands in the fall they pass
through the Aleutian Islands and on
to the broad Pacific, as far down as
opposite San Francisco. They then
turn eastwardly towards the Coast,
and then turn up the Coast to the
breeding grounds for eight or nine
months, when on their journey they
never 60 ashore anywhere. They are
never seen to leave the water except
ing ON St. John and St. George, of the
Pribiloff group.
1t is upon this fact that our Gove1n-
ment bases its right to prevent pelagic
sealing. The United States claims to
own the seals wherever found, because
they breed on our soil and always re-
turn to our soil at the end of their sea
journey.
The Canadian seal hunters put out
to sea in boats, head off the returning
herd and shoot them indiscriminately,
male and female, old and young. If
they do not instantly kill the seal hit,
it sinks below the surface and is lost.
This practice has in few years SO re-
duced the herd that it is now very
much decreased, and the seal promises
to follow the buffalo into oblivion. It
has been proposed, if pelagic sealing
cannot be otherwise stopped, to kill all
the seals on the land, and so end the
controversy by exterminating the
race.
CARRIERS IN NO DANGER.
They Are Losing No Sleep Over the