e ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 127 



been lying ever since, as to render them eligible for this operation 

 and immediate shipment. The moisture of tlie air dissolves and 

 destroys a very large quantity of the saline preservative which the 

 company brings up annually in the form of rock salt, principally 

 obtained at Carmen Island, Lower California. 



Law protecting the seals. — The Alaska Commercial Company, 

 by the provisions of law under which they enjoy their franchise, are 

 permitted to take 100,000 male seals annually', and no more, from the 

 Pribilof Islands. This they do in June and Juh' of every 3'ear. Aftei* 

 tliat season the skins rapidly grow worthless, as the animals enter 

 into shedding, and, if taken, would not pay for transportation and 

 the tax. These natives are paid 40 cents a skin for the labor, and they 

 keep a close account of the progress of the work every day; tliey do 

 so, as it is all done b}^ them, and they know within 50 skins, one way 

 or the other, when the whole number have been secured each season. 

 This is the only occupation of the 308 people here, and they naturally 

 look well after it. The interest and close attention paid by tliese 

 natives, on both islands, to the " holluschickie " and this business 

 was both gratifying and instructive to me during my residence there. 



Erroneous popular ideas. — The common or popular notion in 

 regard to seal skins is that they are worn by those animals just as 



A bundle of tvro skins. 



they appear when offered for sale; that the fur seal swims about, 

 exposing the same soft coat with which our ladies of fashion so delight 

 to cover their tender forms during inclement winter. This is a very 

 great mistake; few skins are less attractive than is the seal skin wlien 

 it is taken from the creature. The fur is not visible; it is concealed 

 entirely by a coat of stiff overhair, dull, graj^-brown, and grizzled. 

 It takes three of them to make a lady's sacque and boa ; and in oi'der 

 that the reason for their costliness may be apparent, I take great 

 pleasure in submitting a description of the tedious and skillful labor 

 necessarj^ to their dressing ere they are fit for sale, which mil be found 

 in the appendix. 



Sketch of the Russio-China trade in fur-seal peltries. — 

 During the whole of the extended period, from 1790 to 1867, inclusive, 

 the Russians shipped and sold nearly all of the fur-seal skins that 

 were taken from the Pribilof Islands, in tliat great international mart 

 of Kiachta, on the Chinese frontier. Since the Americans have taken 

 control, the sales have all been practically made in London. The 

 Alaska Commercial Company sells everj^ one of its skins from the 

 Pribilof and Commander groups there, in the same wareroom where 

 the Hudson Bay Companj^ when it had a thrifty existence and was 

 a power, used to auction its furs annually. ,As millions of the air- 

 dried pelts taken from the seal islands of Alaska have been bartered 



