haling ships now arrive with profitable cargoes of oil or
whalebone. The sea otter, the fur of which is more highly prized than
that of any other animal, and the walrus, valuable for its oil, are also
nearly extinct.

No more cruel hunting was ever carried on than was that of the seal
mothers in the open ocean where they go in search of food. When the
mothers are killed the young ones, left in the rookeries upon the
Pribilof Islands, soon die of starvation. The fur seal has thus been so
reduced in numbers that it was threatened with extinction. Now Russia,
Japan, England, and the United States have agreed to stop all killing of
the fur seal for a number of years.

As a result of the great demand for fish, and the careless methods used
by the thousands of men engaged in catching them, Nature unaided cannot
keep up the supply. For the purpose of assisting her, strict laws have
been passed in many states. These laws prohibit fishermen from
stretching their nets or weirs across the streams so as to block the
passage of the fish when going to their spawning grounds. They also
prohibit the taking of undersized fish and in some cases allow none at
all of some kinds to be taken for a given time. Our government is now
doing a great deal to save the food fishes of the country, but some
varieties are still decreasing.

[Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
An Indian fish trap.]

The little herring is the most valuable of all the sea fish. Enormous
numbers are captured in nets, and still greater numbers form the food of
other fish. The herring has so many enemies that it must increase
rapidly in order to hold its place in the sea. Nature has arranged that
this fish should produce twenty thousand or more eggs at each spawning
season. It is thought that if only two eggs out of this great number
hatch and grow up, the supply of herring will be maintained. This
estimate does not, however, take into account the present terrible waste
of herring in the Chesapeake and other bays on the Atlantic coast,
where it is taken in nets and used for making land fertilizer. Is it any
wonder that the herring is now decreasing in numbers?

The oyster was once hunted so closely that it would have disappeared
from our coast waters if the young had not been taken and raised
artificially. Is it not interesting to know that we plant young oysters
on oyster farms, and raise oyster crops, all below the level of high
tide? The greatest oyster farms in th