362 



HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



they had taken for a great many years prior to that date. Hence, I have proportioned it back to 

 the last record, which I find in Techmainov, whose figures, embraced in the three periods, from 

 1796 to 1861, have been given as copied by him from the authentic archives of the old Russian 

 Company ; he is careful to say in this connection that the exhibit does not show all skins that 

 were taken from the seal-islands, but only those which the Russians ttfok'for sale from Sitka. 



And, again, other Russian authors, rather than this historian of the Russian- American Com- 

 pany, have said that immense numbers of fur-seal skins hundreds of thousands were frequently 

 accumulated in the warehouses at Sitka only to decay and be destroyed. Their aggregate cannot 

 be estimated within any bound of accuracy, and it is not in the sum total of the following table. 

 What we have taken on the island, since 1868, is presented below, almost correct. In the following 

 table, relative to the Pribylov Group, it will be noticed that there is a gap of ten years between 

 1786, the date of their discovery, and 1797, the time of the earliest Russian record. How many were 

 taken then, there is not the faintest evidence in black and white ; but we do know that from the 

 time of the discovery of the Pribylov Islands up to 1799, the taking of fur-seals on both of these 

 islands progressed without count or lists ; and without any responsible head or director ; because 

 there were then, upon those islands, seven or eight different companies, represented by as many 

 agents or leaders, and all of them vied one with the other in taking as many fur-seals as they could.* 



Fur-seal skins taken for shipment and sale (Callorhinus ursinus) from the Pribylov Islands. 



* Including about 5,000 annually from the Commander Islands. 



The following table shows the number of fur seals taken on Commander Islands from 1862 to 

 1880: 



Fur-seal skins taken for shipment (Callorhinus ursinus) from the Commands Islands. 



* The attempt, on my part, to get an authentic list of the numbers of fur-seals slain upon the Pribylov Islands, 

 prior to 1868, has simply been, to my mind, a partial failure. My investigation and search for such record has satis- 

 fied me that it does not exist ; memoranda of shipments only, each season, were made by the agents of the Russian 

 Company when the vessels took those skins from the seal islands to Sitka ; and of these skins, again, count was only 

 made of such as were exported to China or Russia, no msntion being made anywhere of the number which was 

 consumed in Alaska by the company's large force of attache's, or else destroyed at New Archangel. This method of 

 accounting for the yield from the Pribylovs from 1806 or 1817 up to 1867, naturally confuses a correct determination 

 as to the sum total renders it, perhaps, very inaccurate. 



