The Washington herald., 1912-10-27
By JAMEs ,. SORROW.

Persons who IKE TO -oeDpte IN the
water and figure out profits on
paper might try their mathematics
on muskratS and diamond-backed
terrapin ''Sealskin costs are now
made out Of the pelts Of muskrats Ter
rapin, six inches across the shell. are
being sold for SIS a dozen. Both animals
are romantic in commercial possibilities.
Indeed. it might be practicable to raise
them In the same pond. with lilies n .
side line and catfish as a paying incl
dent Of the enterprise.
Visionary as muskrats may sound as
a business proposition-not to mention
te-rapin. and they can be argued equally
as well-the suggestion is not without
sensible appeal when the facts are
known. A ship came down from Alaska
the other day carrying cargo Of 3,764
sealskins. That one cargo contained AL
the Alaskan skins that the dealers and
manufacturers OF the world will handle
during the season Of 1s12-13.
Seal coats Of full length have risen to
such q price that none. save. miliionaires
ought to. purchase them. Muskrat
coats, which look like seal, are now be-
ing specialized by all fashionable fur
riers. Peits OF this once humble and
neglected quadruped have jumped from
cents to $50 apiece. Raising musltrats,
therefore, should become serious mat
ter They live in or along the banks
Of streams. eat roots. mostly, and can
be caught in traps baited with papsnips.
In the meanwhile Alaskan seal will
soar In price and after this season will
almost disappear from British and
American markets, not to reappear until
the winter of 1917. Congress. to increase
the fast vanishing herd, has stopped all
killing for q period of five years. Only
the skins of such animals as are slaugh-
tered by the natives for food will be
brought out OF the country and sold,
George Meade Bowers, Commissioner of
Fish and Fisheries, is the chief police
man standing guard over the herd. I
andO frogs. Whales. sealions and seals
gave an adventurous turn to the story
he told.
Svvims n Mile a Minute.
Il have just received some figures
from the North" he said. Last year
there were &c. 400 breeding female seals
at the rookeries on Pribiiof Islands.
This year the number was increased to
H,sS4. Japan. Canada, and the United
States entered into a treaty agreement
to stop pelagic sealing in Alaskan
waters The treaty went into effect last
year. As a result. there are twice as
many female seals as there were In the
season of 1911.
The seals come in from the ocean dur
ing the summer. After the birth Of her
pup, the mother slips back into the
water and swims toff in search of food.
She may go a long distance, being a
strong and speedy swimmer. 1t is said
that a seal can travel at the rate OF
thirty miles an hour and is the fastest
creature that lives in the water. From
what I know Of them. / should say that
they can swim a mile a minute. Hereto
fore 1t has been the practice of Japa-
nese and Canadian poachers to kill the
seals as they approached the breeding
grounds and to cruise about for the
mothers when they left the rookeries to
hunt for fish.
If a seal is shot and instantly killed,
the body sinks Immediately and is usu-
ally lost. So the number of seals OBJ
tanned by the poachers invariably fell
far below the number actually destroyed.
When the mother fails to return. the
pup starves to death. Some seasons as
many as 1900 dead pups have been
found at the rOokeries, which showed.
approximately, that an equal number of
mothers were killed by the pelagic seal
ers. This year, however. only 1,O6O pups
died on the islands.
The sales Of Alaskan sealskins in the
London market Is still another way of
telling how many animals have been
unlawfully slaughtered. All skins 60 to
London to be dyed Last year $1,000
skins were sold there-lS.000 by pelagic
sealers and 12.0c0 by the United States
government. The 1000 were taken on
the islands: the 5000 were taken from
seals killed at sea by poachers. and
thousands more seals, no doubt. sank
and were lost
Up to this season it was our practice
only to kill the surplus of male seals. The