Show MALE SEALS RAVE NOALE ONLY ONE NEEDED TO EVEHY HUNDRED FEMALES After They Are Four Years Old Their Skins Are Worthless Proposition to Brand Females New York Jan Professor Leopold Stejneger of the national museum one of the United States commissioners sent to investigate the conditions of seal life in the Russian water of Bering sea has returned to this city Professor Profes-sor Stejneger left this city in June and his headquarters were in the heart of the Russian sealing districts Professor Stejneger said The decrease de-crease in the herds of seal which frequent fre-quent the Russian islands is great There is no other cause for this than pelagic sealing Take the mortality of man for instance as compared with that in the case of war Add to this the condition of not only the men but the women warring against and killing kill-ing one another and it is easy to see what increase there would be in the mortality There are only about 65000 seals left on the Commander Islands and still fewer on the islands in the Okhotsk sea The government kills only males on the islands so that if this were kept up there would be no extinction of seals The males are of no use after they are three or four years old as their skins are worthless Only about one male is needed to every 100 females so that when one of the latter is killed there being an equal number of each In the beginning the decrease would amount to very little as compared to the extinction carried on by the pelagic sealers The Russian government has been able to do nothing in the way of preventing pre-venting the decrease in seal life Russia Rus-sia has never claimed the right to stop sealing as the United States has done in the open sea An agreement was entered into however between the Russian government and England whereby pelagic sealing could not be carried on within 30 miles of the island is-land This was no protection for the seals however as they are liable to go out 150 miles as 30 miles I think branding would be a good thing for females used for breeding purposes I am positively assured that the brands would remain on the animal just as they do on horses Two or three seals which were branded on the Prlbiloff Islands last year were discovered with their brands on them |