384 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



to whatever the company might do they possibly and probably would never clearly understand, 

 and hence dissatisfaction and suspicion would inevitably arise; as it is, the whole subject is most 

 satisfactorily settled. 



THE METHODS OP THE ALASKA COMMERCIAL COMPANY. Living as the seal-islanders do, 

 and doing what they do, the seal's life is naturally their great study and objective point. It 

 nourishes and sustains them. Without it they say they could not live, and they tell the truth. 

 Hence, their attention to the few simple requirements of the law, so wise in its provisions, is not- 

 forced or constrained, but is continuous. Self-interest in this respect appeals to them keenly and 

 eloquently. They know everything that is done and everything that is said by anybody and by 

 everybody in their little community. Every seal-drive that is made and every skin that is taken, 

 is recorded and accounted for by them to their chiefs and their church when they make up their 

 tithing-roll at the close of each day's labor. Nothing can come to the islands by day or by night with- 

 out being seen by them and spoken of. I regard the presence of these people on the island at the 

 transfer, and their subsequent retention and entailineut in connection with the seal business, as an 

 exceedingly good piece of fortune, alike advantageous to the Government, to the company, and to 

 themselves. 



It will be remembered that at the time the question of leasing the islands was before Congress 

 much opposition to the proposal was made on several grounds, by two classes, one of which argued 

 against a " monopoly," the other urging that the Government itself would realize more by taking 

 the whole management of the business into its own hands. At that time, far away from Washing- 

 ton, in the Rocky Mountains, I do not know what arguments were used in the committee rooms, 

 or who made them ; but since my careful and prolonged study of the subject on the ground itself, 

 and of the trade and its conditions, I am now satisfied that the act of June, 1870, directing the 

 Secretary of the Treasury to lease the seal-islands of Alaska to the highest bidder, under the exist- 

 ing conditions and qualifications, did the best and the only correct and profitable thing that could 

 have been done in the matter, both with regard to the preservation of the seal life in its original 

 integrity and the pecuniary advantage of the Treasury itself. To make this statement perfectly 

 clear the following facts, by way of illustration, should be presented : 



First. When the Government took possession of these interests, in 1868 and 1869, the gross 

 value of a seal-skin laid down in the best market, at London, was then less in some instances and 

 in others but slightly above the present tax and royalty paid upon it by the Alaska Commercial 

 Company. 



Second. Through the action of the intelligent business men who took the contract from the 

 Government, in stimulating and encouraging the dressers of the raw material, and in taking sedulous 

 care that nothing but good skins should leave the islands, and in combination with leaders of 

 fashion abroad, the demand for the fur, by this manipulation and management, has been wonderfully 

 increased. 



Third. As matters now stand, the greatest and best interested of the lessees are identical with 

 those of the Government; what injures one instantly injures the other. In other words, both 

 strive to guard against anything that shall interfere with the preservation of the seal life in its 

 original integrity, and both having it to their interest, if possible, to increase that life ; if the lessees 

 had it in their power, which they certainly have not, to ruin these interests by a few seasons of 

 rapacity, they are so bonded and so environed that prudence prevents it. 



Fourth. The frequent changes in the office of the Secretary of the Treasury, who has very 

 properly the absolute control of the business as it stands, do not permit upon his part that close, 

 careful scrutiny which is exercised by the lessees, who, unlike him, have but their one purpose to 



