TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

 PART I. 



CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION : Page. 



The occasion of the inquiry 17 



The act of Congress 17 



The commission 17 



The scope of the work 18 



The investigations 19 



The report 19 



Itinerary, 1896 20 



Itinerary, 1897 21 



CHAPTER II. HISTORICAL SKETCH: 



Discovery and exploration 23 



Bering's second voyage 23 



Discovery of Commander and Pribilof islands 23 



The Russian- American Company '. 23 



Its organization 24 



The ukase of 1821 24 



The second and third charters 24 



The company's management 25 



Injurious methods 25 



Protection of females 25 



The herd at the close of Russian control 26 



The interregnum 26 



Professor Dall's notes 26 



The number of seals killed 26 



Mr. Howes's notes 26 



The trading companies 26 



The work of sealing 27 



Methods of driving 27 



Russian methods 27 



The killing not indiscriminate 28 



American management 28 



The Alaska Commercial Company 28 



The first lease 29 



The North American Commercial Company 29 



The present lease 29 



The decline in the bachelor herd 29 



Land and sea killing 29 



The extension of sealing to Bering Sea 30 



The Tribunal of Arbitration 30 



The effect of the Regulations 30 



CHAPTER III. THE HOME OF THE FUR SEALS: 



A. The Pribilof Islands 31 



Their geography 31 



St. Paul Island 31 



St. George Island 31 



Otter Island 32 



Walrus Island 32 



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