ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 131 



time the -^'hole are driven like a, flock of sheep to the establishment which is a 

 mile distant from the sea, and there the males of four years, with the exception of 

 the few that are left to keep up the breed, are separated from, the rest and killed. 

 In the days of promiscuous massacre snch of the mothers as Lad lost their pnps 

 would ever and anon return to the establishment, absolutely harrowing up the 

 sympathies of the wives and the daughters of the hunters, accustomed as they 

 were to such scenes, with their doleful lamentations. 



The fur seal attains the age of 15 or 20 years, but not more. The females do not 

 bring forth young till they "are 5 years old. The hunters have frequently marked 

 their ears each season, and many of the animals have been notched in this way 

 ten times, l^it very few of them oftener. 



Under the present system the fur seals are increasing rapidly in number. Pre- 

 viously to its introduction, the animal hunts had dwindled down to three and 

 four thousand. They have now gradually got up to thrice that amoimt, and 

 they are likely soon to equal the full demand, not exceeding 30,000 skins of the 

 Russian Government. ' 



It is valuable as showing that as long ago as 1841-42, under Rus- 

 sian management, more than 30,000 skins per annum would be a loss, 

 and not i^rofitable to take from the seal islands. Also that, tliough 

 the tardy recognition of the fact that females should not be slaugh- 

 tered was made on the Pribilof Islands shortly prior to 1841-42, yet 

 suitable regulations had not yet been made for the management of the 

 business, inasmuch as all classes, "as a whole," were driven to the 

 killing grounds. This harassed and disturbed the females quite as 

 badly as if killed outright. In 1845 the present order of implicit non- 

 tresi^ass ui^c^n the breeding rookeries was first established, and I am 

 sorry that I can not find the name of the intelligent Russian who pro- 

 mulgated it, so that it might be known and respected, as it so well 

 deserves. 



No FUR SEALS KNOWN TO EARLY TRADE. — The homely, yet explicit, 

 letters of William l>eresford should be noticed, for he sailed from Lon- 

 don in 1797-98, as a trader with Portlock and Dixon, and he gives, per- 

 haps, the only straightforward synopsis of the fur trade of the north- 

 west coast as it was then. He reviews the subject as it presents itself 

 to him from Cooks Inlet to Cape Mendocino in the series of field notes 

 which are printed and form the body and soul of Dixon's Voyage. 



Nowhere does the author mention the fur seal in this narrative, cov- 

 ering as it does two years' cruising between Kadiak and Cape Flat- 

 tery. He evidently had not even heard of it, though at the time the 

 Russians were working the Pribilof Islands barbarously, taking hun- 

 dreds of thousands of skins. 



When I first went to the northwest coast, May, 18G5, I learned from 

 the venerable Dr. Tolmie, a recently retired chief factor of the Van- 

 couver (Hudson Bay Company's) district, a great deal of the fur- 

 bearing animals of that country, as known to the celebrated company 

 which he had represented. I find no mention in my memoranda made 

 at the time that he indicated the skin of the fur .seal as one of thelojig 

 list of items of trade ; and wdiile I was in that country between the 

 Stikeen mouth and Puget Sound, 18G5-1867, inclusive, I never heard 

 a single word of the fur seal, and I, myself, then never recognized its 

 name. I do not think, therefore, it worth wliile to discuss the idle 

 rumors, now prevalent to some extent, as to the "fact" that the fur 

 seal is breeding in some lonely nook here and there along the coast. 

 The Indians w^ould have known it full w^ell a hundred years ago, and 

 such anxious seekers after choice peltries as William Beresford and 

 the Hudson Bay Company would have profited accordingly. 



1 An Overland Journey Around the "World, 1841-43, Sir George Simpson, gover- 

 nor in chief Hudson Bay Company's territories; Philadelphia, 1847, pp. 130-13L 



