174 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



only be partial; that is to say, we can limit the number to be killed 

 when they are within our reach, and prevent their being dispersed on 

 the breeding rookeries, or driven from the islands. On the other 

 hand, the question raised is, whether the killing of the number above 

 mentioned has had, or has not had, the effect of decreasing the aggre- 

 gate number of seals. Judging from the comparison between the 

 maps of the rookeries as they were in 1872 and the condition of the 

 rookeries themselves as surveyed, and from the testimony of the best 

 informed men on the island, both whites and natives, I think it has 

 not as yet. Since the young males alone are killed, injury would be 

 effected through this action if it did not allow a sufficient number to 

 reach that maturity neces^ry for the satisfaction of all demands of 

 the breeding females on the rookeries. The young males do not grow 

 stt'ong enough to reach the rookeries until they are at least 6 years 

 old; hence the effect of the first year's killing can not be seen in that 

 connection until the pups have attained this age. For that reason it 

 seems to me that it is now a little too soon to decide whether we are 

 killing too many or not, since the present conduct of affairs has now 

 been only four years in operation. It is possible, however, that more, 

 even twice as many as are now killed annually, might be taken every 

 year without injury, but it would be making a severe and most liaz- 

 ardous experiment before any definite result has been obtained from 

 the first, which is now in operation. The number now killed annually 

 is entirely experimental, because we have nothing to start from in the 

 past as a basis of estimation for the future until the effect produced 

 is satisfactorily shown, I would, therefore, not recommend an exten- 

 sion of the contract as to the number of seals to be killed until within 

 seven or eight years from the date of the one now existing went into 

 effect, when, if the rookeries have not decreased in size, it can then 

 safely be done. 



The lease of the islands. — In June, 1870, Congress passed an 

 act entitled "An act to prevent the extermination of the fur-bearing 

 animals in Alaska," which authorized the Secretary of the Treasury 

 to lease to private parties for a term of years the right to engage in 

 the business of taking fur seals on the islands of St. Paul and St. 

 George, under certain specified conditions and restrictions. There- 

 fore, the subject was iiubliclj' advertised, and bids solicited, the privi- 

 lege to be awarded to the highest responsible bidder. A number of 

 individuals doing business in San Francisco under the firm name of 

 the "Alaska Commercial Company" were the successful bidders, and 

 the right was granted to them under the terms of the lease now in 

 force (a copy of which is here annexed) for a period of twenty years, 

 from the 1st day of May, 1870. The terms were not arranged and the 

 lease delivered until the 31st day of August, 1870, and the vessels and 

 agents of the company did not reach the islands until the 1st of Octo- 

 ber. The season allowed by law for killiDg seals being nearly over, 

 but few skins, consequently, were taken by the company that year 

 (3,148 on St. Paul, and 5,789 on St. George Island). But the follow- 

 ing and each succeeding year they have taken nearly the full number. 



When the lease was made it was erroneously suj^posed that there 

 were about one-third as man^^ seals on St. George Island as there were 

 on St. Paul, and, in consequence of this understanding, the number 

 to be taken from each island was fixed at 25,000 and 75,000 respec- 

 tively. In reality there are only about one-eighteenth as raan}^ on the 

 former as on the latter, which fact having been clearly shown by Mr. 

 EUiott, the power was given to the Secretary of the Treasury by Con- 



