392 HISTOEY AND METHODS OF THE FISHEEIES. 



amount, and in addition thereto a revenue tax or duty of $2 is hereby laid upon each fur-seal 

 skin taken and shipped from said islands during the continuance of such lease, to be paid into the 

 Treasury of the United States; and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby empowered and author- 

 ized to make all needful rules and regulations for the collection and payment of the same; for the 

 comfort, maintenance, education, and protection of the natives of said islands, and also for carrying 

 into full effect all the provisions of this act : Provided further, That the Secretary of the Treasury 

 may terminate any lease given to any person, company, or corporation, on full and satisfactory proof 

 of the violation of any of the provisions of this act, or rules and regulations established by him : 

 Provided further, That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to deliver to the owners 

 of the fur-seal skins now stored on the islands, on the payment of $1 for each of said skins taken 

 and shipped away by said owners. 



SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the provisions of the seventh and eighth sections of an 

 act entitled " An act to extend the laws of the United States relating to customs, commerce, and 

 navigation over the territory ceded to the United States by Russia, to establish a collection dis- 

 trict therein, and for other purposes," approved July 27, 1868, shall be deemed to apply to this 

 act ; and all prosecution for offenses committed against the provisions of this act, and all other 

 proceedings had because of the violations of the provisions of this act, and which are authorized 

 by said act above mentioned, shall be in accordance with the provisions thereof, and all acts and 

 parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed. 



SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the Congress may at any time, hereafter alter, amend, or 

 repeal this act. 



Approved, July 1, 1870. 



AMENDED MARCH 24, 1874. Be it enacted, <-c., That the act entitled " An act to prevent the 

 extermination of fur-bearing animals in Alaska," approved July 1, 1S70, is hereby amended so as to 

 authorize the Secretary of the Treasury, and he is hereby authorized, to designate the months in 

 which the fur-seals may be taken for their skins on the islands of Saint Paul and Saint George, 

 in Alaska, and in the waters adjacent thereto, and the number to be taken on or about each island 

 respectively. 



14. COMMENTS UPON THE LEGISLATION OF CONGRESS. 



RATIO OF CATCH AT FIRST INCORRECTLY APPORTIONED. The original text of the existing 

 law for the protection of the seal-islands provides that the 100,000 seals which may be annually 

 taken from them shall be proportioned by killing 75,000 on Saint Paul and 25,000 on Saint George. 

 This ratio was based evidently upon the foregoing table of Veniauimov, which, if accurate, would 

 clearly show that full one-third as many seals repaired to the smaller island as to the larger one, 

 and until I made my surveys, 1872-1874, it was so considered by all parties interested. The fact, 

 however, which I soon discovered, is that Saint George receives only one-eighteeth of the whole 

 aggregate of fur-seal visitation peculiar to the Pribylov Islands, Saint Paul entertaining the other 

 seventeen parts. 



REASON FOR AMENDMENT OF 1874. This amazing difference, in the light of prior knowledge 

 and understanding, caused me, on returning to Washington in October, 1873, to lay the matter 

 before the Treasury Department, aud ask that the law be so modified that, in the event of abnor- 

 mally warm killing seasons, a smaller number might be taken from Saint George with a correspond- 

 ing increase at Saint Paul; for, unless this was done, it might become at any season a matter of 

 great hardship to secure 25,000 killable seals on Saiut George in the short period allotted by the 



