CIRCULAR Letter of dR. C. HART MERRIAM.

Dr. C. Hart Merriam, one of the American Bering Sea Commissioners, addressed the following circular letter to various leading naturalists in different parts of the world, for the purpose of obtaining their views as to the best method of preserving the fur-seals of Alaska.

WAS HINGTON, D. C., April 2, 1892.

DEAR SIR: The Government of the United States having selected me as a naturalist to investigate and report upon the condition of the fur-seal rookeries on the Pribilof Islands, in Bering Sea, with special reference to the causes of decrease and the measures necessary for the restoration and permanent preservation of the seal herd, I visited the Pribilof Islands and made an extended investigation of the subject, the results of which are here briefly outlined.

FACTS IN THE LIFE HISTORY OF THE NORTHERN FUR-SEAL (Callorhinus Ursinus).

1. The fur-seal is an inhabitant of Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk, where it breeds on rocky islands. But four breeding colonies are known, namely, (1) the Pribilof Islands, belonging to the United States; (2) the Commander Islands, belonging to Russia; (3) Robben Reef, belonging to Russia; and (4) the Kuril Islands, belonging to Japan. The Pribilof and Commander islands are in Bering Sea; Robben Reef in the Sea of Okhotsk near the Island of Saghalien, and the Kuril Islands between Yezo and Kamtchatka. The species is not known to breed in any other part of the world.

2. In winter the fur-seal migrates into the North Pacific Ocean. The herds from the Commander Islands, Robben Reef, and the Kuril Islands move south along the Japan coast. The Pribilof Islands herd moves south through the passes in the Aleutian chain. The old breeding males are not known to range much south of these islands. The females and young reach the American coast as far south as California. 3. Returning, the herds of females move northward along the coast of California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia in January, February, and March, occurring at varying distances from shore. Following the Alaska coast northward and westward they leave the North Pacific Ocean in June, traversing the passes in the Aleutian chain, and proceed at once to the Pribilof Islands.

4. The old (breeding) males reach the islands much earlier, the first coming the last week in April or early in May. They at once land and take stands on the rookeries, where they await the arrival of the females. Each male (called a bull) selects a large rock, on or near which he remains, unless driven off by stronger bulls, until August, never leaving for a single instant, night or day, and taking neither food nor water. Before the arrival of the females (called cows) the bulls fight savagely among themselves for positions on the rookeries, and many are severely wounded. All the bulls are located by June 20. 5. The pregnant cows begin arriving early in June, and soon appear in large schools or droves, immense numbers taking their places on the rookeries each day between June 12 and the end of the month, varying with the weather. They assemble about the old bulls in compact groups called harems. The harems are complete early in July, at which time the breeding rookeries attain their maximum size and compactness.

6. The cows give birth to their young soon after taking their places

on the harems. The period of gestation is between eleven and twelve months.

7. A single young is born in each instance. The young at birth are about equally divided as to sex.

8. The act of nursing is performed on land, never in the water. It is necessary, therefore, for the cows to remain at the islands until the young are weaned, which is when they are 4 or 5 months old.

9. The fur-seal is polygamous and the male is at least three times as large as the female. Each male serves fifteen to twenty-five females. 10. Copulation takes place on land. Most of the cows are served by the middle of July, or soon after the birth of their pups. They then take to the water and come and go for food while nursing.

11. The pups huddle together in small groups called "pods," at some distance from the water. When 6 or 8 weeks old they move down to the water's edge and learn to swim. The pups are not born at sea, and if soon after birth they are washed into the sea they are drowned.

12. The cows are believed to take the bull first when 2 years old, and deliver their first pup when 3 years old.

13. Bulls first take stands on the breeding rookeries when 6 or 7 years old. Before this they are not powerful enough to fight the older bulls for positions on the harems.

14. Cows when nursing, and the nonbreeding seals, regularly travel long distances to feed. They are commonly found 100 or 150 miles from the islands and sometimes at greater distances.

15. The food of the fur-seal consists of fish, squids, crustaceans, and probably other forms of marine life also.

16. The great majority of cows, pups, and such of the breeding bulls as have not already gone, leave the islands about the middle of November, the date varying considerably with the season.

17. The nonbreeding male seals ("holluschickie "), together with a few old bulls, remain until January, and in rare instances even until February.

18. The fur-seal as a species is present at the Pribilof Islands eight or nine months of the year, or from two-thirds to three-fourths of the time, and in mild winters sometimes during the entire year. The breeding bulls arrive earliest and remain continuously on the islands about four months; the breeding cows remain about six months, and the nonbreeding male seals about eight or nine months, and sometimes during the entire year.

SEALS KILLED ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS.

19. The only seals killed for commercial purposes at the Seal Islands are nonbreeding males (under five or six years of age, called "hollus chickie"). They come up on the rookeries apart from the breeding seals, and large numbers are present by the latter part of May. They constantly pass back and forth from the water to the hauling grounds. These animals are driven by the natives (Aleuts) from the hauling grounds to the killing grounds, where they are divided up into little groups. Those selected as of suitable size are killed with a club by a blow on the head; the others go into the water and soon reappear on the hauling grounds. In this way about one hundred thousand young males have been killed annually on the Pribilof Islands for twenty years.

20. In addition to the commercial killing above described, a number of male pups were formerly killed each year to furnish food for the natives, but the killing of pups is now prohibited by the Government.

PRESENT NUMBERS COMPARED WITH FORMER ABUNDANCE.

The rookeries on both St. Paul and St. George Islands bear unmistakable evidence of having undergone great reduction in size during the past few years. This evidence consists (1) in the universal testimony of all who saw them at an earlier period, and (2) in the presence upon the back part of each rookery of a well-marked strip or zone of grass-covered land, varying from 100 to 500 feet in width, on which the stones and bowlders are flipper-worn and polished by the former movements of the seals, and the grass is yellowish-green in color and of a different genus (Glyceria angustata) from the rank, high grass usually growing immediately behind it (Elymus mollis). In many places the ground between the tussocks and hummocks of grass is covered with a thin layer of felting, composed of the shed hairs of the seals matted down and mixed with excrement, urine, and surface soil. The exact year when this yellow-grass zone was last occupied by seals is difficult to ascertain, but the bulk of testimony points to 1886 or 1887. The aggregate size of the areas formerly occupied is at least four times as great as that of the present rookeries.

CAUSES WHICH LED TO THE DEPLETION OF THE ROOKERIES.

The seals which move northward along the coast of the northwestern United States, British Columbia, and southeastern Alaska from January until late in June are chiefly pregnant females, and about 90 per cent of the seals killed by pelagic sealers in the North Pacific are females heavy with young. For obvious reasons many more seals are wounded than killed outright, and many more that are killed sink before they can be reached, and consequently are lost. As each of these contains a young, it is evident that several are destroyed to every one secured.

For several years the pelagic sealers were content to pursue their destructive work in the North Pacific, but of late they have entered Bering Sea, where they continue to capture seals in the water throughout the entire summer. The females killed during this period are giving milk and are away from the islands in search of food. Their young starve to death on the rookeries. I saw vast numbers of such dead pups on the island of St. Paul last summer (1891), and the total number of their carcasses remaining on the Pribilof Islands at the end of the season of 1891 has been estimated by the United States Treasury agents at not less than 20,000.

The number of sealskins actually secured and sold as a result of pelagic sealing is shown in the following table:

Inasmuch as the number of seals annually secured by pelagic sealing represents but a fraction of the total number killed, a glance at the above figures is enough to show that the destruction of seal life thus produced is alone sufficient to explain the present depleted condition of the rookeries.

Pelagic sealing as now conducted is carried on in the North Pacific Ocean from January until late in June, and in Bering Sea in July, August, and September. Some sealing schooners remain as late as November, but they do so for the purpose of raiding the rookeries.

It has been alleged that overkilling of young males at the islands is a principal cause of the depleted condition of the rookeries.

In reply to this contention it is only necessary to bear in mind that the number of male and female fur-seals is equal at birth, that the species is polygamous, and that each male serves on an average at least fifteen to twenty-five females. It is evident, therefore, that there must be a great superabundance of males, of which a large percentage may be killed annually forever without in the slightest degree endangering the productiveness of the herd. Furthermore, it has been shown that the killing of seals at the Pribilof Islands is completely under the control of man and is restricted to the superfluous males, for selection as to sex and age can be and is exercised so that neither females nor breeding males are killed. It is evident that this killing of nonbreeding males could in no way affect the size or annual product of the breeding rookeries unless the number killed was so great that enough males were not left to mature for breeding purposes. There is no evidence that this has ever been the case. Moreover, all seals killed or wounded are invariably secured and their skins marketed; in other words, there is neither waste of the seal herd, nor impairment of the productiveness of the breeding stock.

Pelagic sealing, on the other hand, is wasteful in the extreme and is directed to the fountain head or source of supply. From the very nature of the case selection can not be exercised, and a large percentage of seals wounded are lost. Owing to the peculiar movements of the seal herds, it so happens that about 90 per cent of the seals killed in the North Pacific are females heavy with young, entailing a destruction of two seal lives for every adult seal killed. In Bering Sea, also, large numbers of females are taken; these females are in milk, and their young die of starvation on the rookeries.

Pelagic sealing as an industry is of recent origin, and may be said to date from 1879. The number of vessels engaged has steadily increased, as has the number of seals killed, until it appears that unless checked by international legislation the commercial extermination of the seal is only a matter of a few years. It seems a fair inference, therefore, that the only way to restore the depleted rookeries to their former condition is to stop taking seals at sea, and not only in Bering Sea, but in the North Pacific as well.

Having been selected by my Government solely as a naturalist, and having investigated the facts and arrived at the above conclusions and recommendations from the standpoint of a naturalist, I desire to know if you agree or differ with me in considering these conclusions and rec ommendations justified and necessitated by the facts in the case. I shall be greatly obliged if you will favor me with a reply.

Very truly yours,

C. HART MERRIAM.

REPLY OF DR. ALPHONSE MILNE EDWARDS, LE DIRECTEUR DU MUSÉUM D'HISTOIRE NATURELLE, PARIS, FRANCE.

PARIS, FRANCE, le 20 avril, 1892. MONSIEUR, J'ai lu avec un grand intérêt la lettre que vous m'avez adressée relativement aux phoques à fourrure de la mer de Berhing, et je pense qu'il y aurait un réel avantage à ce que des mesures internationales fussent concertées afin d'assurer une protection efficace à ces précieux animaux.

Aujourd'hui, les facilités de transport dont disposent les pêcheurs sont si grandes, les procédés de destruction dont ils usent sont si perfectionnés que les espèces animales, objet de leur convoitise, ne peuvent leur échapper. Nous savons que nos oiseaux migrateurs sont, pendant leurs voyages, en but à une véritable guerre d'extermination et une commission ornithologique internationale a déja examiné, non sans utilité, toutes les questions qui se rattachent à leur conservation.

N'y aurait il pas lieu de mettre les phoques à fourrure sous la sauvegarde de la marine des nations civilisées?

Ce qui s'est passé dans les mers australes peut nous servir d'avertissement.

Il y a moins d'un siècle, ces amphibies y vivaient en troupes innombrables. En 1808, lorsque Fanning visita les îles de la Georgie du Sud, un navire quittait ces parages, emportant 14,000 peaux de phoques appartenant à l'espèce Arctocephalus australis. Il s'en procure, luimême, 57,000 et il évalue à 112,000 le nombre de ces animaux tués pendant les quelques semaines que les marins y passèrent cette année-là. En 1822, Weddell visite ces îles et il évalue à 1,200,000 le nombre des peaux obtenues dans cette localité.

La même année, 320,000 phoques à fourrure furent tués aux Shetland Australes.

Les conséquences inéluctables de cette tuerie furent une diminution rapide du nombre de ces animaux. Aussi, malgré les mesures de protection prises, depuis quelques années, par le Gouverneur des Malouines, ces phoques sont encore très rares et les naturalistes de l'expédition française de la "Romanche" ont séjourné près d'une année à la Terre de Feu et aux Malouines sans pouvoir en capturer un seul exemplaire. C'est une source de richesse qui se trouve tarie.

Il en sera bientôt ainsi du Callorhinus ursinus dans l'Océan Pacifique Nord et il est temps d'assurer à ces animaux une sécurité qui leur permette une reproduction régulière.

J'ai suivi avec beaucoup d'attention les enquêtes qui avaient été faites par le Gouvernement des États-Unis à ce sujet. Les rapports des commissions envoyées aux Iles Pribilou ont fait connaitre aux naturalistes un très grand nombre de faits d'un haut intérêt scientifique et ont demontré que l'on pouvait, sans inconvénients, pratiquer des coupes réglées dans ces troupes de phoques où les mâles sont en excès. On a appliqué là, de la manière la plus heureuse, ce que l'on pourrait appeler l'impôt sur les célibataires, et on aurait assuré la conservation indéfinie de l'espèce, si les émigrants, à leur retour dans les stations de reproduction, n'avaient été assaillis et pourchassés de toute façon.

Il y a donc lieu de tirer parti des renseignements très complets que l'on possède sur les conditions d'existence des phoques à fourrure afin d'en empêcher l'anéantissement et une commission internationale peut, seule, indiquer les règles dont pêcheurs ne devraient pas se départir.