426 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



To send white men, as a reserve guard, to remaiu in the vilhiges 

 while the natives go out from 6 to 12 miles to guard the seals, is to insult 

 and injure every native man on the islands, and, if persisted in, will 

 eventually end in blood. For the sake of peace — for the good of the 

 native people — I suggest that no more white men, soldiers or sailors, be 

 landed on the islands to do guard duty. 



FOXES. 



As the time has come when the Government must feed and cloihe 

 the natives of the seal islands, and as there is no immediate pros- 

 pect of an increase of seals for years to come, I think it would be wise 

 on the part of the Department to attempt to make the islands self- 

 supporting, if it is possible to do so without meddling with the rights 

 or privileges of others. 



The most valuable animal on the islands, next to the fur seal, is the 

 blue fox, whose skin sells readily for $10 to $15, and which, under 

 proper management, could be made to bring in a revenue sufticieut to 

 make the native inhabitants not only self-supporting, but far more 

 comfortable than ever before. 



There is not a word in the lease about foxes, nor has the Department 

 ever made a rule or regulation that is ever heard of on the subject; but 

 the natives have been allowed to hunt and trap and slaughter them 

 indiscriminately, until they are nearly exterminated. The skins were 

 sold by the natives for a few cents each, or, occasionally, a drink of 

 bad whisky. 



I think it is safe to say that 20,000 blue foxes were killed on the 

 islands in the twenty years beginning with 1870 and ending with 1889, 

 for which the natives received not to exceed 50 cents each, or $10,000, 

 although the same skins actually sold for $200,000 in San Francisco. 

 Now, I maintain that that sum of money should have been secured and 

 saved for the natives, to be drawn upon in seasons of distress, like 

 the present. I crave the serious attention of the Department to the 

 question of foxes, and 1 respectfully suggest that regulations be made 

 by which box traps shall be used exclusively, so that every vixen 

 caught may be turned away uninjured and none but the males killed. 

 The present barbarous method of taking foxes in the common steel 

 trap, which maims everything caught, will eventually, ifi)ersisted in, 

 exterminate the foxes on the Pribilof islands. 



By the use of the box trap, as suggested, and the establishment of a 

 shorter hunting season for a year or two until the animals increase to 

 their original number and splendor, there may soon be taken annually 

 on the two islands 1,500 to 2,000 prime fox skins, that will sell for 

 $20,000, a sum, I repeat it, amply sufficient to support, if j'udiciously 

 expended, every man, woman, and child on the islands in afar better 

 manner than they were supported in their best and most prosperous 

 days. 



Simple justice requires that I should say the present lessees raised 

 the price of fox skins, and are now paying $2 per skin. 



SCHOOLS, WATER, AND DRAINAGE. 



I have said so much about schools, water, and drainage in former 

 reports that I do not deem it expedient to repeat the story here; yet 

 the subject is so very important to the unfortunate people, who have 



