crated at Aberdeen on Nov. 14, 1784, by three bishops of the Episcopal Church in Scotland. Returning to the U. S., his jurisdiction was admitted by the church members of Connecticut, and he was requested to extend it over Rhode Island. At the General Convention of 1789 his authority was confirmed and he became presiding bishop. See Beardsley's Life and Correspondence of Samuel Seabury (1881). Seabury, SAMUEL (1801-72), American P. E. clergyman, grandson of Bishop Samuel Seabury, was born in New London, Conn., and was privately educated. He was ordered deacon in 1826, and ordained priest in 1828, and after holding various educational positions was editor of The Churchman from 1831 to 1849. In 1838 he became rector of the Church of the Annunciation in New York city, from which he retired in 1868. He was professor of Biblical learning in the General Theological Seminary from 1862 until his death. He published several theological works, including The Continuity of the Church of England in the Sixteenth Century (1853) and The Supremacy and Obligation of Conscience (1860). Sea-cat. See CHIMERA, and WOLF-FISH. Sea-cow. See SIRENIA. THURIANS. Sea-devil. See DEVIL-FISH. SEAL. Sea-fan. See GORGONIDE. Seafarer, one of the masterpieces of Old English song, is in the Exeter Book. It may be divided into two parts-the first heathen, the second Christian and later. Two antagonistic points of view are representedlonging for the sea, and the hardships of a sailor's life. Most of the text is accessible in Sweet's Anglo-Saxon Reader (ed. 1887). See Wülker's Grundriss (1885), and the American Journal of Germanic Philology (1902), iv. 4. Sea-fir. See HYDROZOA. Seaforth, tn., Huron co., Ont., Canada, 37 m. N.N.W. of London, on a branch of the Maitland R., and on the Buff. and Goderich br. of the Gr. Trunk R. R. It has 1,100 ft. under its site, a 100-ft. thick stratum of rock salt. It has salt wells, and manufactures furniture, engines, woollens, flour, and is an important shipping point for grain, cattle, horses, and noteworthy eggs. Among features of interest are the town hall, a park, and the Seaforth Collegiate Institute. The surrounding district produces wheat (of which 1,000,000 bushels are shipped annually from Seaforth), cattle, and salt. It was first settled about 1860. Pop. (1901) 2,247. Seaforthia, a genus of tropical Australasian and Pacific palms, which are usually handsome plants with tall trunks, and terminal, pinnatisect leaves. They are mostly worthy of cultivation as stove plants. The best-known species is S. elegans, the Illawarra palm, which does well in a cool greenhouse. It grows to a height of about sixty feet, and has leaves from three to over ten feet in length. Sea-fox. See THRESHER. Sea-grape, or JOINT FIR, a genus (Ephedra) of shrubs belonging to the order Gnetaceæ. E. distachya is a Russian species, the sweet mucilaginous berries of which are eaten by the peasants. Sea-grapes, in zoology, a name given to the grapelike egg clusters of some of the cuttle-fishes. Sea-gull. See GULL. and Seaham Harbor, tn. seapt., Durham, England, 6 m. s. of Sunderland. It was founded in 1828 by the Marquis of Londonderry, as an outlet for the produce of his collieries. The new harbor was completed in 1905. Trade is chiefly in coal, and there are motor wagon, bottle, and electrozone works, and an iron foundry. Pop. (1911) 15,759. blanched they are bitter and unpleasant. It may be cooked much in the same way as asparagus. Sea Islands, off the coast of S. C., and extending s. of Winyah Bay to the Savannah R., a littoral chain of islands, low, flat, and very fertile. Hilton Head, Port Royal, St. Helena, Edisto, John, and James are the largest. They produce the rice and famous long-fibred SeaIsland cotton. They are subject to inundations; those of 1893-4 killed thousands and destroyed the crops. The population is largely negro. Seal. See SEALS AND SEAL FISHERIES. Seal. See GEMS AND PRECIOUS STONES. Seal. In law, a distinguishing mark or impression upon paper or parchment, or some substance, as wax, bearing a mark, device, or words, and capable of being attached to a document, to authenticate it, or to serve as a signature. The term is also applied to the instrument by which the mark or impression is made. The practice of authenticating documents by affixing a distinguishing mark or seal was current in ancient India, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, and was continued in medieval times. The early popes used leaden seals or bullæ. Seals were used on private instruments at a time when few people could write, and most documents were written by the clergy. All modern nations have great seals, and states, courts, certain public officials, and municipalities generally have their own seals for authenticating important documents. By the common law a peculiar efficacy is attached to a sealed instrument. Consideration is conclusively presumed in a contract or promise under seal. Deeds, wills, and other conveyances are generally required to be under seal. In some of the United States seals have been rendered unnecessary by statute, and in many states a seal is only presumptive evidence of consideration and may be rebutted. The practice of having individual scals has fallen into disuse, and round pieces of adhesive paper of some color other than white, are in common use as seals. In some states a scroll with a pen and the letters 'L S,' or the word 'seal' will suffice. Corporations are generally required to have seals and usually adopt a die which makes an impression of the name of the corporation upon paper. See CONTRACTS; consult Parsons on Contracts. Sea Lavender. Either of the perennial plants, Statice Limonium or Limonium Carolinianum, found in salt marshes, and occasionally cultivated. The latter Sea-lion has tufts of thick, oblanceolate leaves, and broad, panicle-like flower-heads, of feathery aspect, but crowded with tiny, lavendertinted, five-parted flowers. Sea-leopard. A large spotted seal, Stenorhynchus leptonyx, of the family of Phocida, found in Antarctic seas. Sea-lion, or SEA-BEAR. A name applied to the larger members of the Otariidæ, resembling in general form, structure, and sea - bears, breeding habits the but without the fur. Eumetopias steller, the great yellow sea-lion, attaining a length of 10 to 12 ft. and a weight of 1,200 to 1,500 the largest species, pounds, is distributed along the widely shores of the North Pacific from California to Japan. It is much prized by the natives of Alaska for food and for the skin, used as covering for their boats. Zalophus californianus, the smallest species, is found on the coast of California and is the common sea-lion of menageries and zoological gardens. Otaria jubata of South America and Arctocephalus lobatus of Australia are the southern species. See FUR-SEAL and SEALS and SEAL FISHERIES. It Seal Islands. See LOBOS ISLANDS. A term also applied to the Commander and Pribilof groups of islands in Bering Sea because of the fur seal rookeries upon them. Sealing-wax, a colored composition of resins and other substances u ed for sealing bottles and documents; its use has, however, greatly diminished since the introduction of envelopes with adhesive flaps. Sealing-wax is supposed to have originated in the East and was brought from India to Europe by the Venetians. was an important article of commerce and was handled also by the Spaniards. There are many recipes for different grades of sealing-wax, but for a high-class red wax the following gives good results: Fuse a hundred parts of orange shellac in an enamelled pot over a gas flame, mix with thirty parts of Venice turpentine, add seventy-five parts of vermilion, and again thoroughly mix. The mixture is scented by the addition of two parts of storax or Peruvian balsam, and cast into sticks, the sticks being finally polished by superficial fusion. Other colors can be obtained by substituting ivory black, artificial ultramarine, and so forth for the vermilion. For a commoner wax for parcels three parts shellac may be melted with five parts resin and four parts Venice turpentine, and one part chalk and two parts of red lead or vermilion, mixed to a paste with oil of turpentine, added. Bottle waxes are of a cheaper and simpler character still-resin, rendered less VOL. XI.-5 65 brittle by the addition of 10 per cent. of its weight of beeswax, and colored by 25 per cent. of lampblack or red ochre, being melted, and the necks of the bottles dipped in the mixture. See Standage's Sealing Waxes (1902). Sealkote. See SIALKOT. ex Seals and Seal Fisheries. The term seal is applied to two widely different classes of animals the fur seals (the 'seabears' of their discoverers) and the hair seals, or true seals. The latter belong to the suborder Pinnipedia, having short feet, not truly plantigrade, with long claws, the posterior limbs alone being used in swimming. The head and neck can scarcely be raised and the animal cannot run or walk, its movements on land being by a wriggling bellywise motion. There is no ternal ear. The fur seals belong to the suborder Gressigrada, and from are probably descended The feet bear-like ancestors. are truly plantigrade, the anterior limbs being used in swimming. The head and neck can be raised as in the bear, and the animal can run or lope along the ground as do ordinary mammals. The external ear is moderately developed. In internal structure the two animals are equally distinct. Beyond the fact that both are carnivorous mammals, feeding on fish and perfectly adapted to life in the water, they have little in common. In structure, appearance, degree of intelligence (the hair seal is superior), and method of locomotion, the two forms are entirely distinct, and their evolution as pelagic animals has been along separate lines. 1. The Fur Seals.-These constitute two groups or generaArctocephalus (À. townsendi, Guadalupe Island; A. philippi, Galapagos Islands; A. australis, southern coasts of South America and neighboring islands; A. forsteri, coasts of New Zealand and southwestern Australia; A. delalandi, islands off South Africa; A. gazella, Kerguelen and Prince Edward islands), once numerous and widely distributed among the islands of the southern hemisphere, now practically extinct, except for two small herds, one on Lobos Island in the mouth of the River Plata, the other on certain islands off Cape Horn, both under government protection; and Callorhinus (C. ursinus, Commander Islands; C. alascanus, Pribilof Islands; C. kurilensis, Kuril Islands and Robben Island), confined to Bering Sea and the North Pacific Ocean, still existing in considerable though greatly diminished numbers. The typical male fur seal, called bull, or beach master, Seals and Seal Fisheries attains maturity at years, about 7 to 500 weighing 400 pounds, with a length of 6 feet and girth of 44. His color is blackish or dark brown, with yellowish water- hairs, especially coarse and long, on the back of the neck, forming a 'wig,'or mane. The adult female, or cow, bears her first young, or pup, at three years, and averages about 80 pounds in weight, with length and girth in proportion. Her color is of varying shades of brown. The breeding grounds are boulderstrewn beaches and rocky hillslopes along shore, where the animals congregate in close-set masses, or rookeries. They are polygamous, each male getting about him as many females as he can control, in groups called harems, numbering from one to one hundred, averaging about 30. The young males, or bachelors, herd by themselves on beaches distant from the breeding grounds. The bulls arrive early in May, contend with one another for places, and await the arrival of the cows in early June. The breeding season is at its height by the middle of July, and ends early in August, when the bulls, having fasted since their arrival, go away to feed and recuperate. The single pup is born within a few hours after the arrival of the cow, grows rapidly, and learns to swim at the age of six weeks. The cow is served by the bull within a week, and goes to sea to feed, returning at intervals to nourish her pup. Pups and cows leave the islands in November for the winter migration, followed later by the other classes of animals as winter advances. The migration of the Pribilof seals extends to the latitude of southern California, which is reached late in December, the return trip along the coast occupying the time until June. Usually the females extend their movements only as far as California, the males remaining generally in northern waters. The Commander herd has its journey along the coast of Japan to its southern extremity. The Kuril herd winters in the inland sea of Japan. Our first knowledge of the northern fur seals is derived from Steller, the naturalist of Bering's voyage of 1741, the expedition being wrecked on one of the Commander Islands now known as Bering Island, where large rookeries existed and still exist. The second and larger herd of the Pribilof Islands was discovered in 1786 by the Russian navigator whose name the islands bear. This herd came into the possession of the United States with the territory of Alaska in 1867. The Commander herd re mains in the control of Russia, and the Kuril herd now belongs to Japan. Following the example of Russia, the United States in 1870 leased the seal industry to a trading company-the Alaska Commercial Company-for a period of 20 years, at an annual rental of $55,000 and a royalty of $3 per skin. During the period of the lease an annual quota of 100,000 skins was taken. The government derived in rental, royalty, and import duties (for all sealskins are dressed and dyed in London) about $13,000,000, or nearly twice the total cost of Alaska. In 1890 the industry was leased to the North American Commercial Company, at an advanced royalty of $10 on each skin. But the herd had begun to decline, and since that year the quota has remained at about onefifth its former size, that for the season of 1905 numbering only 13,273. A like diminution has been experienced by the Russian herd. while the Kuril herd has been practically exterminated. The decline in the northern fur-seal herds has been due to pelagic sealing, the hunting of the seals at sea with the spear and gun when on their migrations or on their summer feeding grounds. The Indians of Neah Bay and Vancouver Island from the earliest times hunted the stragglers from the migrating herd as it passed their shores, going in their canoes. In 1879 vessels began to be used to carry the hunters out and to enable them to follow the moving herd, affording them shelter at night and in times of storm. The industry grew enormously. From one or two vessels in 1879 the fleet increased to 122 vessels, each with from five to twenty hunting crews, in 1891, and its catch mounted from about 5,000 to 140,000 in 1894. The operations of the fleet extended gradually to cover the entire migration route and finally invaded the summer feeding grounds in Bering Sea. On land the killing of females is forbidden, only the superfluous young males being taken. At sea the sexes cannot be distinguished, and the females predominating, the pelagic catch is made up largely of this class, investigations showing a percentage of from 62 to 84 of females. These are gravid when taken on the spring migration, and leave dependent young to the rookeries when taken in I ering Sea. The natural result foll wed. The herd of two and one half million animals of 1870-80 was reduced in 1890 to less than one-half and at the present tim. is still further reduced to less than one-tenth. The pelagic industry has also starve or declined. From its maximum of 140,000 skins in 1894, it had fallen to 14,000 in 1905. Anticipating the destructive cffects of pelagic sealing, the United States in 1886-89 seized sealing vessels in Bering Sea, among them Canadian vessels, this action bringing on a diplomatic controversy, which was settled by the Paris Tribunal of Arbitration of 1893. (See BERING SEA CONTROVERSY.) The regulations of this tribunal proving ineffective, the whole question was again investigated by a joint commission of American and British scientific experts in 1896 -97, and a joint agreement as to facts arrived at, this agreement placing the responsibility for the decline of the herd upon pelagic sealing and foreshadowing abolition of this method of sealing as the only remedy. On this agreement the question passed for settlement, with a number of other questions in dispute between the United States and Canada, into the hands of the Joint High Commission called in Quebec in the autumn of 1898. Nothing came of this, because the commission could not decide the Alaska.. boundary dispute, an extraneous matter which had been injected into the discussion. In 1906 press announcements point to renewed efforts to settle the fur-scal question. The important thing to be done is the establishment of an international game law which shall protect the breeding female fur seal on her winter migration and on her summer feeding grounds in the open seas. In 1898 Japan and Russia entered into treaty relations with the United States to abolish pelagic sealing when the consent of Great Britain could be obtained to such an arrangement. An agreement between the United States and Great Britain would therefore bind the four nations to the compact, and ought to insure its enforcement. A money compensation should be paid to the pelagic sealers for the relinquishment of their industry. Prior to 1868 the herds of the Pribilof and Commander islands had yielded a total of 3,197,154 skins. Since that date their total yield has been 4,750,129 skins, of which 3,605,568 were from the land industry, 1,144,561 from the pelagic. The raw skins of the former have ranged in value from $20 to $40, of the la ter from $7 to $15. The total product of the two Southern herds (Lobos Island and Cape Horn) has amounted to but 640,682 for the same period. It is from the fur-seal herds of the North Pacific that the world's supply of seal skins must be obtained, and it is to be hoped that the necessary steps for their protection and preservation will speedily be taken. 2. The Hair Seals. The principal species of hair seals, and those upon which the hair seal industry depends, are Phoca vitulina, the common or harbor seal of bays and sheltered waters throughout the world; P. groenlandica, the harp or saddleback seal of Newfoundland and the North Sea northward to the Arctic; P. fætida, the rough or ringed seal; Erignathus barbatus, the bearded seal, of the North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Arctic oceans; Halichoerus gryphus, the gray seal; Cystophora cristata, the crested seal, confined to the North Atlantic; P. caspica, the seal of the Caspian Sea, and P. largha of the Pacific. The remaining species belong to the South Pacific, Indian, and Antarctic seas and are commercially unimportant. 8 to 9 The hair seal produces no fur, but is valued for the leather obtained from its hide and for the oil from it fat. The animals vary considerably, in size and color, the gray seal, the largest, reaching a length of feet. The ringed seal, the smallest, ranges from 4 to 5 feet in length. The extremes of weight lie between 80 and 300 pounds. The harp seals are in general whitish or yellowish white, the head and nose black, the throat and chin spotted, a broad lunate series of dark spots on the back, thought to resemble an ancient harp, giving rise to the distinguishing name. The harbor seal is yellowish gray, varied with irregular spots of dark brown or black. The female hair seal is slightly smaller than the male, but there is not the wide disparity between the sexes which is seen in the fur seals. The animals are monogamous. The harbor seal is non-migratory, the other species obeying a more or less definite semi-annual migration-southward with the approach of winter and northward with the receding ice in the spring. The breeding grounds for the principal species are the ice fields of Newfoundland, Labrador and Greenland coasts. The single young is brought forth upon the ice, the mother returning from her feeding excursions to nourish it. The pup grows rapidly, learns to swim at the age of a month, and forms the important part of the annual catch. The hunting of the hair seals. like the pelagic hunting of the fui seals, began in the simple operations of the natives from shore in their canoes with nets, spears, and guns. Stationary nets, dead falls and sealing hooks are used about rocks where the animals accustomed to rest and about their breathing holes in the ice arc |
