32 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



The first section of the act of July 1, 1870, makes it unlawful to kill 

 any fur seals except in the months of June, July, September, and 

 October. This restriction has evidently no other object than to prevent 

 any killing of seals at a time when the hunting of these animals might 

 be prejudicial to the existence of the seal rookeries, but, probably owing 

 to inaccurate information at the disposal of the framers of the bill, the 

 limits of time are erroneously defined. The beginning of the hunting 

 season ought to be determined by the condition of the rookeries at each 

 season ; that is, no sealing should be allowed before the rookeries are 

 definitely settled, which at some seasons happens to be the case in the 

 month of June, but mostly in May. As to the limitation at the end 

 of the season, I can not discover any practical reason therefor. The 

 fact is that the security of the rookeries depends mainly on the manner 

 of hunting, and but partially on the time. All restrictions as to time, 

 while failing to attain the object in view, have proven prejudicial to the 

 successful carrying on of the sealing business, and entailed an unneces- 

 sary loss upon the Treasury and a grievous hardship upon the native 

 population of the islands. 



Owing to the enormous taxation falling in the shape of rental and of 

 tax proper upon the sealing business under the present lease with the 

 Alaska Commercial Company, the mode of carrying on the same had 

 to undergo a radical change. Formerly every skin was worth taking; 

 at present none but choice furs will pay. Hence the necessity of 

 beginning the hunting as early as possible, taking very few skins in 

 July, none in August, few in September and first half of October, and 

 most at the end of the season, when the furs which are very poor during 

 the summer mouths have become rich again for the winter, as is gen- 

 erally the case with all fur-bearing animals. The number of working 

 days being necessarily limited at any season by the peculiar require- 

 ments of the seal hunting with respect to weather and direction of 

 winds, and the number of seals to be taken from any one drove extremely 

 restricted by the exigencies of the market and the difficulty in select- 

 ing the proper victims, it is next to impossible to prepare a large num- 

 ber of good skins within the limits of time prescribed by the law with- 

 out exhausting the working energies of the population. 



In addition to the disadvantages above stated, a great difficulty 

 arises from the change which has occurred in the tone of the foreign 

 market since the cession of Alaska to the United States. The Eussian 

 company used to contract with the London firms for a certain number 

 of seal skins of average quality to be delivered on payment of a certain 

 sum in bulk. At present the seal skins are taken in London at so much 

 apiece, according to their size and the quality of the fur, so that seal 

 skins have been — for instance, last year — sold in London in a dozen 

 categories, ranging in price from 55 down to 7 shillings apiece, but few 

 skins being classified in the higher and the greatest number in the lower 

 categories. Thus, the average price obtained last year did not amount 

 to 20 shillings per skin. 



Under the existing circumstances it is evident that the sealing busi- 

 ness can not be successfully carried on without the utmost exertion on 

 the part of the officers of the Government and the agents of the com- 

 pany, for the establishment of this new system certainly interferes 

 with all former notions and habits of the natives and creates the neces- 

 sity of a training altogether novel to them. However successful may 

 be such training, no completely satisfactory results may be attained 

 without the immediate removal of the existing restrictions as to the 

 time of sealing. 



