File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17971804908).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo11amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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'////; iLMsiii:/) iin si:m. cnorr 51 killing ot t'cinalc m'mU Itcuaii, :iiul \\\\> ii;itiir;illv I'cMillcd in the rjipid i-cdiic- tioii of the ln-ccdiiiu stock. 'I"\\(iity-(i\c vcmi's jiji'o, witli i)ri-li;i;>v 1,000,00(1 seals in sii;lit. it was ;)ossilil(' to kill aiiiiiially 100,000 male seals on the I'ri- hilof Islands witlioiit iiijiiiy to tlie liefd. To-day with a herd of less than IT"),(UK) seals reniainiiii:'. the island catch of males is seldom mofe than 10,000. The annual ocean scalini:,' catch consistin;;' chiefly of females has, in the meantime, dwindled ffom an axcrauc of NO.000 a yeaf tc a paltry 10,000; while the sealint: tleet, which once mnnlx't'cd iL'O \-essels, now consi.sts of few(f than ihifty ncsscIs The condition of the Asiatic seal hcfd is miieh wdrse, fof hotli the land anil sea catch ha\e decreased to less than one-third of that , h)0(l, aii'e, hreedinji liahits ami mi,L':rations of this important animal. Anionjr the prohleins sohcd. we may consider hrieHy some of those connected with the won- derful migrations of the fur seal. Late in tlx' fall the seals leax'e tiieir island homes in Herinu Sea and enter the Pacific Ocean. The .\inerican herd mi,t;rates southeastward to southern ('alifornia, a distance of o\ er three thousand miles, whence it moxcs northward along' the coast din-ing the winter, to enter I'erinu Sea the next -.nmmer. The .\siatic herd migrates southwestward to the coast of .lapaii, returning the h)llowing season hy the same route. There is no commingling of the two herds either in leering Sea or in the Pacific, lioth herds remain aHoat the entire winter, and neither herd is known to touch (\y\ land an.\ where e\ee))t upon i-etm-n to its native ishinds in Bering Sea. No other mammal follows with -trict reguhirity .so extcnsixc a migration route.
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?l .\ l)<il).v Cur seal of the new •rroup

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