128 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



understood will be dispatclied to San Francisco soon and start on ber 

 return voyage between the lotli and 25tli of July, probably. 

 I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



Harrison G. Otis, 

 Treasury Agent, in Charge of Seal Islands. 



The Seciietaey of the Treasury, 



Washington.^ D. G. 



Special Agent Otis; preliminary report for 1S80. 



Office of Special Agent Treasury Department, 



St. Paul Island, July 1, 1880. 



Sir : I have the honor to report that on the 9th ultimo the United 

 States revenue cutter Thomas Coricin touched at this island on her 

 northern cruise, when Captain Hooper, commanding, represented to 

 me that, in view of the possibility of his being compelled to winter with 

 his ship in the Arctic Ocean, he required far clothing for his crew, and 

 asked permission to procure what are known as "pup" seal skins here 

 for that purpose if the same conjd be lawfully and properly obtained. 

 His request appearing to me to be reasonable, I made an exception to 

 the existing rule in consequence of the exceptional character of the 

 cutter's mission to the frozen ocean, and issued to Captain Hooper a 

 written permit to take such number of this description of skins as he 

 required for the use of his crew's clothing and might be able io procure 

 on the island, on condition that the skins so procured be used exclusively 

 for clothing and not for sale or barter. Under this authority he took 

 on board 380 pup skins taken from young seals about 4 months old, 

 lawfully killed last fall by the native people for food. These skins not 

 being of the requisite marketable size, or lit for acceptance by the 

 Alaska Commercial Company as part of their lawful quota, I requested 

 Captain Hooper to report the transaction to you, which I also do myself, 

 asking your sanction of my course. 



In this connection I have to state that the rule at these islands in 

 reference to traffic in this class of skins has been to prohibit their ship- 

 ment, except in the Ibrm of blankets or manufactured clothing, on the 

 ground that there is no express authority, either in law or orders, for 

 shipi)ing from the seal islands any greater number of seal skins than 

 the maximum number (100,000) allowed by law to be taken annually by 

 the Alaska Commercial Company under their lease. Evasions of this 

 rule have frequently been attempted, and it is not easy of strict enforce- 

 ment where scores of native people are found with these skins in their 

 l>ossession and eager to trade with every vessel touching at the islands. 



The matter would seem to turn on the questions of the true owner- 

 ship of this class of skins, the right of the native people to traffic in 

 them, and the right of the Alaska Commercial Company, or of its 

 agents, to buy and ship fur-seal skins of any number, kind, or class not 

 embraced in the terms of its contract or included in its annual quota 

 of prime skins. 



It is claimed that pup skins are not seal skins in a commercial sense, 

 they being of undersize and not of recognized or established commer- 

 cial value; and further, that being taken from seals killed by the native 

 people "for their own food and clothing," as authorized bylaw, such 

 skins belong to these people as their own exclusive property. The 

 true point is, What does the law authorize? It is clear that it gives no 



