ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 41 



100,000 allowed by law, the natives would know it as quickly as it 

 was done, and they would, on the strength of their record and their 

 tally, demand the full amount of their compensation for the extra 

 labor, and were any ship to approach the islands at any hour these 

 people would know it at once, and would be aware of any shipment 

 of skins that might be attemi)ted. It Avould then be the common talk 

 among the 398 inhabitants of the two islands, and it would be a matter 

 of record, open to any person who might come upon the ground charged 

 with investigation. (See note, 39, L.) 



Furthermore, these natives are constantly going to and from Una- 

 laska, visiting their relations in the Aleutian settlements, hunting for 

 wives, etc. On the mainland they have intimate intercourse with bit- 

 ter enemies of the compan}^ with whom they would not hesitate to 

 talk over the whole state of affairs on the islands, as they always do, 

 for they know nothing else and think of nothing else and dream of 

 nothing else. Therefore, should anything be done contrary to the 

 law, the act could and would be reported by these people. The Gov- 

 ernment, on its part, through its four agents stationed on these islands, 

 counts these skins into the ship, and one of their number goes down 

 to San Francisco upon her. There the collector of the port details 

 experts of his own, who again count them all out of the hold, and upon 

 that record the tax is paid and the certificate signed by the Govern- 

 ment. 



It will, therefore, at once be seen, by examining the state of affairs 

 on the islands and the conditions upon which the lease is granted, 

 that the most scrupulous care in fulfilling the terms of the contract is 

 compassed, and that this strict fulfillment is the most profitable course 

 for the lessees to pursue; and that it would be downright folly in them 

 to deviate from the letter of the law and thus lay themselves open at 

 any day to discovery, the loss of their contract, and forfeiture of their 

 bonds. Their action can be investigated at any time, any moment, 

 by Congress, of which thej^ are fully aware. They can not bribe these 

 398 people on the islands to secrecy any more successfuUj^ than they 

 could conceal their action from them on the sealing fields; and any 

 man of average ability could go, and can go, among these natives and 

 inform himself as to the most minute details of the catch from the 

 time the lease was granted up to the present hour, should he have 

 reason to suspect the honesty of the Treasury agents. The road to 

 and from the islands is not a difficult one, though it is traveled only 

 once a year. 



The subject of the method and direction of the business of sealing 

 on these islands, involving as it does a discussion of the law and the 

 action of the Alaska Commercial Company and the natives combined, 

 will form a thesis for another chapter, 



THE HAIR SEAL. 



Enumeration of the various species of seals. — The history 

 of the fur seal, the one overshadowing and superlatively interesting 

 subject of this discussion, I shall present in all its multitudinous 

 details, even at the risk of being thought tedious. The aggregate of 

 animal life shadowed every summer out upon the breeding grounds 

 of the seal islands is so vast, so anomalous, so interesting, and so valu- 

 able, that it deserves the fullest mention ; and even ivhen I shall have 

 done it will be but feebly expressed. 



The seal life on the Pribilof Islands may be classified under the 



