134 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



I made during: the season careful notes as to the amount of oil 

 represented by the blubl^er exposed on the 100,000 young mahi seal 

 carcasses, and I found that the 2 and 3 year old " hollusehickie" 

 bodies as left by the skinner would not clean up on an average more 

 than half a gallon of oil, while the 4-year-old males would make 

 nearly a gallon. It should be remembered that quite a large portion 

 of the seal's fat is taken off with the skin, as its presence thereon is 

 necessary to that proper amalgamation and preservation by the salt 

 when it is applied to its fresh surface in tlie "kenches." Hence tlie 

 amount of oil represented by these carcasses every year is not much 

 over 60,000 gallons. 



Condition of the fur-seal oil market. — When among the seal- 

 oil deale/is in New York C-ity during the month of May in 1876, I took 

 these notes with me and investigated tlie standing and the demand 

 for fur-seal oil in their market and the markets of the world, and the 

 statements of these oil experts and dealei-s were all in accord as to 

 the striking inferiority of fur-seal oil compared with the hair-seal and 

 sea-elephant oil, which thej^ dealt in lai-gely. The inferiority of the 

 fur-seal oil is due primarily to the offensive odor of the blubber, which 

 I have spoken of heretofore. This singularly disagreeable smell does 

 not exist in the blubber of the hair seal {PJtocicke), the sea elephant, 

 or sea lion, and it makes the process of refining very difficult. They 

 said it was almost impossible to properly deodorize it and leave the 

 slightest margin of profit for the manufacturer and the dealer. It 

 was gummy and far darker in color than any other seal oil. Hence 

 it possessed little or no commercial value. Then, again, when the 

 subject of taking oil from the seal islands of Alaska is considered, the 

 following obstacles, in addition to the first great objection just cited, 

 arise at once to financial success: The time, trouble, and danger in 

 loading a vessel with oil at the islands, where, on account of the 

 absence of a liarbor and the frequent succession of violent gales, a 

 ship is compelled to anchor from a nnle and a half to 3 miles from the 

 coast, on which the surf is always breaking. The cost, again, of casks 

 and cooperage will amount to 10 cents per gallon; the cost of the 

 natives' work in securing and bringing the blubber to the try works, 

 10 cents per gallon; the cost of refining it, 10 cents; and the cost of 

 transportation of a cargo of, say, 60,000 gallons will amount to nearly 

 20 cents per gallon, thus making a gallon of fur-seal oil aggregate in 

 cost to the taker 50 cents, which entails upon him nothing but pecun- 

 iary loss when the cargo goes upon the market, where it is worth only 

 from 40 to 50 cents retail, with a dull sale at that. ^ 



' In 1873, not having had any experience, and not even knowing the views of the 

 oil dealers themselves, I left the seal islands believing that if the special tax which 

 was then laid upon each gallon of oil as it might be rendered was removed, that 

 it would pay the manufacturer, and in this way employ the natives, many days 

 of the year otherwise idle, profitably. The company assured me that as far as its 

 conduct in the matter was concerned it would be jierfectly willing to employ the 

 natives in rendering f nr-seal oil and give them all the profit, not desiring itself to 

 coin a single penny out of the whole transaction. Possibly this could be done if 

 the special tax of 5.") cents per gallon was stricken off. The matter was then urged 

 upon the Treasury Department by myself in October, 1873, and the tax was 

 repealed by the Department soon after. ' But it seems that I was entirely mistaken 

 as to the quality and value of the oil itself. I made, to satif y myself, a very care- 

 ful investigation of the subject in 18^6. going ])ersonally to the leading dealers in 

 whale and seal oil of New York City, and they were unanimous in their opposition 

 to handling fur-seal oil, some of them saying that they would not touch it at any 

 price. I felt considerably chagrined, because had T knovai as much in 1873 I 

 would have saved myself then, and my friends subseciuently, a good deal of 

 unnecessary trouble and profitless action. 



