108 



ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



Increase of the seal life. — I am free to say that it is not within 

 the power of human management to promote tliis end to the slightest 

 appreciable degree over its present extent and condition as it stands 

 in the. state of nature, heretofore described. It can not fail to be 

 evident, from my detailed narration of the habits and life of the fur 

 seal on these islands during so large a part of everj^ year, that could 

 man have the same suj)ervision and control over this animal during 

 the whole season which he has at his command while they visit the 

 land he might cause them to multiply and increase,' as he would so 

 many cattle, to an indefinite number — only limited by time and the 

 means of feeding them. But the case in question, unfortunately, is 

 one where the fur seal is taken, by demands for food, at least six 

 months out of everj^ year, far beyond the reach or even cognizance of 

 any man, where it is all this time exposed to manj' known i^owerful 

 and destructive natural enemies, and probably many others, equally 

 so, unknown, which prej^ upon it, and, in accordance with that well- 

 recognized law of nature, keep this seal life at a certain number — at a 

 figure which has been reached for ages past, and will continue to be 

 in the future, as far as they now are — their present maximum limit 

 of increase, namelj^ between four and five million seals, in round 

 numbers. This law holds good everywhere throughout the animal 

 kingdom, regulating and preserving the equilibrium of life in the 

 state of nature. Did it not hold good, these seal islands and all Bering 

 Sea would have been literally covered, and have swarmed, like the 

 Medusae, of the waters, long before the Russians discovered them. 

 But, according to the silent testimony of the rookeries, which have 

 been abandoned by the seals, and the noisy, emphatic assurance of 



says that these fur seals were taken on the Farralones, which are small islets just 

 abreast of the entrance to the Golden Gate, California. 



This period of 1834-1834 was the one passed by the Russians in their occupation 

 of Ross or Bodega, Cal., where a colony was engaged in raising cereals and beef 

 for the stations in Alaska. I am inclined to think, however, that very likel}'' 

 many of the specimens of Callorhinus counted in this table were shot or speared, 

 as they now are, out at sea off the Straits of Fuca. The number is insignificant, 

 but the pelts were not very valuable in those days, and probably very slight exer- 

 tions were made to get them, or otherwise 3,000 or 5,000 annually could have been 

 secured at sea then, as they are to-day by our people and the Indians of Cape 

 Flattery. 



The record, however, of killing fur seals on the Farralones, between 1806 and 

 1837, by the Rtissians, who were established then at Bodega. Cal., is an honest one. 

 I do not find any mention made of the fact that they bred there, and I am inclined 

 to think they did not. I believe that when small squads of Callorhinus ursinns 

 hauled out on the Californian islets they did so lured by the large numbers of 

 breeding Zalophiis and the Eumetopias, which repaired there then, as they do now, 

 for that purpose. Had the sea lions not been there, m the manner aforesaid, tlie 

 presence of fur seals on North American land, elsev/here than on that of the Prib- 

 ilof group, would not have been thus determined and established. Again, in this 

 connection and corroborative, is the fact that in is?t^ a few hundred fur seals 

 were taken by sea-lion hunters among the Zaloplius at Santa Barbara and Guada- 

 loupe islands, southern Californian coast. I am assured of this fact by the evi- 

 dence of the gentleman who himself purchased the skins from the lucky hunters. 

 None had ever been seen there before by our people, and none have been taken 

 since. The Russian archives give no testimonv on this score. 



