The proper rules are that no mother seals, baby seals, or father seals shall be killed, but that the hunters shall watch until the badly behaved bachelor seals have got tired with fighting, and gone up above the rookeries to rest.  The hunters ought then to creep in between the seals and the water, and making a noise to frighten them drive them inland.

Every hunter should be armed with a wooden club, and when he has chosen a seal that seems to be about two or three years old, he should strike it with this club and kill it.

In this way a large number of seals can be obtained without disturbing the rest of the flock.

The manner of killing that the United States complains of is that the hunters creep into the rookeries and kill the mother seals, leaving the poor little pups to die by thousands for want of their mothers’ care.

Because of this wholesale killing of the seals, there are few young seals left to grow up in the place of those that have been taken away, and so after a time there will be no more flocks at all.

The sealskin which we use is made out of the under fur of the animal.  The seals which are caught for fur have a very thick, velvet-like undercoat, covered with a quantity of long hair, which has to be removed from the skins before they can be used for market.

The roots of these long hairs grow much deeper into the skin than those of the short, thick fur, and so the pelts can be laid face downward, and pared away very carefully at the back until the roots of the long hairs are cut through.  The long hairs are then pulled out of the skin, and the beautiful soft fur is left.

It is to be hoped that, in the discussion of this matter between England and the United States, the proper rules for killing the seals may be very strictly laid down, that they may be enforced.  It will be too bad if this splendid fur is lost through ignorance and carelessness.

* * * * *

Another of the old questions that have vexed our Government is being brought to the front again.  This one is the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands.

The reason why this subject has come up again is that the Japanese have been emigrating to these islands in such vast numbers of late, that an invasion is feared, and the Government is anxious to have American protection.

A little while ago word was sent that the Hawaiians had turned back four hundred Japanese emigrants who sought to land at Honolulu.  Japan immediately sent war-ships to inquire into the matter, and the United States also sent a cruiser.

It soon became evident that the affair was much more serious than at first appeared.

The Japanese have been emigrating to Hawaii in such vast numbers that, unless something is done to stop them, there will soon be more Japanese than natives in the islands.

The Government of Hawaii, awakening to the danger that threatened, has made fresh advances to the United States, asking once more to be annexed to this country.