The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1904-10-06
FUR SEALS DYING OUT.
so FEW LEFT NOW THAT HUNT
ING THEM DOESN'T PAY.

IDENTIFY Small Protection Yet the
Fishers stiu Oppose Our Suggested
Rules.
Quebec. Sept. 17.-Canadian experts
make no secret of their belief in the
near extinction of the Behring Sea fur
seals. The diminished returns of the
vessels engaged in the sealing industry
are leading many of them to seek Iu-
crative employment elsewhere. While
only tWenty-four Canadian sealing
craft participated in the hunt last year,
las against thirty-five in 1892, the num-
Der now sweeping the north Pacific in
chase of pelts is still smaller.
The total Canadian catch in 1902 was
only 1913 skins. Last year it amount
ed to 14.701, and the twenty-four YES
sels that secured them employed 29S
white men, 3SS Indians, 90 boats and 1854
canoes. s
The result Of the frightful slaughter
of the Behring Sea seals for many years
may be Judged when it is recalled that
i'm one season Baroneff, the former head
of the old Russian fur company, re-
corded In his dispatches that in conse-
quence of the lack Of proper means of
transportation to Siberia no less than
eight hundred thousand fur seal skins
that had been faulty stored had be-
come spoiled and had to be thrown
away. Yet even these enormous figures
fail to convey an adequate idea of the
richness of the fahous Pribyloff Islands
lat the time of their discovery in 1856 by
the Siberian Cossack of that name.
For years before this discovery daring
Siberian fur hunters had pursued Wig
orous search for the legendary "Amik, "
the Eldorado Of furs, the breeding
ground of the fur seal, where they well
knew that the peculiar instincts of the
animal must lead to- the congregation
of untold numbers during the propaga-
sting season. And rich indeed were the
spoils of Pribyloff when, drifting with
torn sails in the desolation of Behring
Sea. he CHANGED by sudden lifting of
the fog upon the four, tiny mist enyel-
oped specks of rock-bound land and
discovered upon the two largest Of the
group vast herds of fur seals.
He named the two islands-one of
which is thirteen, the other ten miles
1ong-after his two small vessels, st.
Paul and st. George, and filled his craft
to the top of the hold, crowding the
decks with bales Of peltries even pre-
cious water casks were thrown over
board to make room for his valuable
cargo. He carried away with him on
this occasion 2,720 sea otter skins, the
inost valuable fur that grows, 5000 sill
ver and blue fox skins, and no fewer
than S1,100 seal skins.
Later, the fomous Russian Fur com
spany, in which many great mobiles and
even members of the Cars family We're
partners realized great wealth In adj
dition to the enormous quantities of
seals taken in Behring Sea, the neigh
boring Aleutian Islands, stretching In al
string from Asia to America, furnished
them with rich supplies of sea otter,
blue. black and silver fox, and other
valuable furs, from a field which. In a
century's fur hunting, has since become
almost completely exhausted.
The latest Inquiries of the naturalists
Unto. the habits of the seals show the flu
Utility of narrow zones of protection
around the islands during the breeding
season. The breeding range Of the fe-
male seals extends at least fifty miles
lsfrom the rocks on which the young are
lying. If they are killed, as they con-
lstantly are, when on these foraging ex-
'peditions, the pups die of starvation,
since no mother seal will adopt anoth-
ser's young. In one recent year more
than twenty-eight thousand pups were
found starved to death on the Pribyloff
Islands, because their mothers had been
Hill IN n,,oI1 re fry1d
THE radius Of protection.
vi Recent Investigations have estab-
lished the rather curious fact that the
fur seal was once, and to a certain ex
tent still is, a land animal The habits
land form of immature animals are now
Regarded as the most certain indication
of the original status Of a species. Now
baby seals can run on land, though
their parents can only crawl, and they
are so far from being aquatic that they
& drown If put in the water. The pups
N are actually afraid of the water. They
Aahave to learn to swim by repeated eff
u forts, and even when able to maintain
themselves In quiet water will rush
away in 1udicrous haste from an ap-
preaching wave.
When they have learned how to swim
they forget how to walk. While the
y pup uses its hind fiippers as feet, run
inning on them in much the same manner
as other land animals, a seal that has
learned to swim only drags its hind
sf1ippers.
That the seals are still diminishing in
numbers and that they have gone on
1 diminishing in spite Of the Paris regula-
tions are facts which admit of little
Question. A little more than fifteen
X years ago an approximate estimate of
\ the animals found on the islands of the
: Pribyloff group gave a total of three
J millions. The rookeries and the hauling
grounds were packed SO closely that
! there was literally not room enough for
y all the seals to live comfortably. A
3 careful count made some five years
{ later resulted in the enumeration Of a.
little more than two hundred thousand.
Under the terms Of the original lease
the company in possession of the is
4 lands was permitted to kill one hun
& dred thousand bachelor males every
4 season. High as that limit appears it
was really small by comparison with
L the number of the whole herd Down
aJS.rSs