ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 163 



Of the skins brought down in the Alexander this year about 4,000 

 were taken from Bobbin Reef, in the Okhotsk Sea, where they are 

 killed very close in order to defeat the marauders who resort thither, 

 the Russian Government not desiring any seals to establish breeding 

 grounds there. Mr. Grebuitzky also submitted maps indicating the 

 area of the rookeries and their increase in extent during the past five 

 years on Copper and Bering islands. 



In answer to a question, Mr. Grebnitzky stated he did not believe 

 that any of the increase in the number of seals on Copper and Bering 

 islands was due to migration from the American side. On the con- 

 trary, he does not believe that the seals from the American and the 

 Russian islands mingle or meet in their annual migrations to the 

 south. 



He gives it as his opinion that the seals from Copper and Bering 

 islands keep along the west side of Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean, 

 while it is generally understood that the seals from the American pos- 

 sessions remain more in American waters. Mr. Grebnitzky thinks 

 there is a wide expanse in mid ocean where no seals are ever seen. 

 This view of the matter is sustained by a statement of a member of the 

 Alaska Commercial Company, who says that there is such a difference 

 in the quality of the fur of the Alaska and Russian seals that though 

 the skins might be mixed in the shipment, every skin from the Russian 

 side would be detected by the dealer in London, the Alaska skin always 

 bringing the highest price. My reasons for inquiring particularly about 

 this is that it has been suggested by a scientific writer on seal life that 

 it is quite possible our fur seals may some day migrate to breeding 

 grounds on the Russian side. 



In the course of this interview with Mr. Grebnitzky it was stated 

 that the fur seal skins from Bobbin Reef are very inferior to those 

 from the other islands. The fur is fine enough, but after the skin has 

 been dressed the fur falls out in spite of every effort to prevent it. For 

 this reason the Robbin Reef skins are kept separate from the Copper 

 and Bering skins when sent to market. Some years the Bobbin Reef 

 skins find a sale to inexperienced dealers, who think that they can cure 

 them, but the old dealers will not touch them. Mr. Grebnitzky states 

 that the natives employed in the work of sealing report the Robbin 

 Reef skins thinner and lighter than those obtained upon the other 

 islands. This thinness of the skin may be taken as a reason why the 

 fur falls out, and the thinness is thought to be due to the fact that those 

 seals resort to the waters which are warmed by the Japan current. A 

 similar influence may account for the fact also that the Copper and 

 Bering skins are inferior to those obtained in Alaska. There is no 

 doubt that the temperature of both the air and water at our islands in 

 Bering Sea is considerably lower than in the vicinity of the seal islands 

 on the Russian side. That difference is doubtless much greater than is 

 indicated by the latitude of the localities in question. 



The manner of taking seals on the Russian islands does not appear 

 to be very different from that pursued upon the American islands. The 

 same sort of natives are employed and they are governed similarly, 

 though it appears that the Russian administrator is invested with more 

 authority than is exercised by the United States Treasury agents in 

 charge on the Pribilof group. 



I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



Geo. Wardman, 

 Assistant 8pecial Agent. 



The Secretary of the Treasury, 



Washington, D. C. 



