16 



middle of the eighteenth century had been almost extirpated therefrom. 

 However, the discovery of Bering island and the Aleutian chain fur- 

 nished fresh fields for the capture of this valuable animal. But alas, the 

 ravages of man were greater than nature's production, and towards the 

 latter part of the last century the sea-otter gatherers found their occupa- 

 tion almost gone, and hence were obliged to turn their attention in 

 another direction. Up to this time the tur seal, although noted, had 

 not been much valued. Now, however, the Russians became interested 

 in this animal. It had long been noticed by them as well as by the 

 natives that the seal proceeded north through the chain of the Aleutian 

 islands in the early summer and south again in the fall. Where they 

 spent the summer and where they bred, was a profound mystery. It was 

 only after eighteen years of unremitting search by hardy navigators that 

 the El Dorado, the fog-bound Pribilov islands, was found, and by the 

 man after whom the islands are named. This was in 1786. The 

 difficulty of finding this place does not now seem strange, when we 

 understand the currents, the winds and fogs of these waters. The 

 Pribilov islands, St. George and St. Paul, lie in the heart of Bering 

 Sea, and are among the most insignificant landmarks known in that 

 ocean, and being almost incessantly surrounded by fog, afforded the 

 fur seal the happiest shelter and isolation. During the year immediately 

 succeeding the discovery of the islands, over 500,000 fur-seals were 

 killed by the Russian hunters. It was obvious that such indiscriminate 

 slaughtering could not continue indefinitely, and government control 

 became necessary. As already stated, the outcome was the formation 

 of the Russian-American Company in 1797, which held absolute sway 

 in Alaska, practically until the cession of the territory to the United 

 States in 1867. 



The impetus to the seal-fur trade was given by the Chinese, who 

 were the principal customers of the Russians. Kiachta, a town in the 

 interior and on the Chinese frontier, was the great centre of trade 

 between China and Russia, and thither the furs made a two-thousand- 

 mile overland journey to be exchanged for teas and silks, principally the 

 former. The Chinese prized this fur very highly and they were the 

 first to discover the art of dyeing it. 



