176 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



present time, though, allowed by the lease, as their skins are too small 

 to be salable in the present state of the trade, but by some change in 

 it they may become desirable in the future, and would then be taken. 

 This would, however, injure the fisheries, because the yearlings of 

 both sexes haul together, and it would be almost impossible to sepa- 

 rate them so as to kill only the males. There has been a waste in 

 taking the skins, due partly to the inexperience of the company's agent 

 and partly to accident and the carelessness of the natives. In making 

 the drives, particularly if they are long and the sun happens to pierce 

 through the fog, some of the seals become exhausted and die at such 

 a distance from the salt houses that their skins can not well be car- 

 ried to them by hand, and are therefore left upon the bodies. This 

 was remedied 'during the last killing season by having a horse and 

 cart to follow the drive and to collect such skins. Some skins have 

 also been lost by killing more seals at a time than the force of men 

 employed could take care of properly. Good judgment and constant 

 care are required in taking the skins, as fifteen minutes' exposure to 

 the sun will spoil them by loosening the fur. Another source of waste 

 is by cutting the skins in taking them off in such a manner as to ruin 

 them. It was very difficult at first to induce the natives to use their 

 knives carefully, and several hundred skins were lost in a season by 

 careless skinning, but by refusing to accept and pay for badly-cut 

 skins the number has been greatly reduced, so that the loss this year 

 on St. Paul was but 130 from all causes. The salt houses are arranged 

 with large bins, called kenches, made of thick planks, into which the 

 skins are put, fur-side down, with a layer of salt between each two 

 layers of skins. They become suflaciently cured in from five to seven 

 days, and are then taken from the kenches and piled up in "books," 

 with a little fresh salt. Finally they are prepared for shipment by 

 rolling them into compact bundles, two skins in each, which are 

 secured Avith stout lashings. The largest of these bundles weigh 64 

 pounds, but their average weight is but 22. The smallest skins, those 

 taken from seals 2 years old, weigh about 7 pounds each, and the 

 largest, from seals 6 years old, about 30. 



Counting the skins.— The skins are counted four times at the 

 island, as follows: By the company's agent and the native chiefs 

 when they are put into the salt houses, the latter giving in their 

 accounts after each day's killing to tlie Government agent; again 

 when they are bundled by the natives who do the work, as each is 

 paid for his labor by the bundle; by the Government agents when 

 they are taken from the salt houses for shipment, and the fourth time 

 by the first officer of the company's steamer as they are delivered on 

 board. An official certificate of the number of skins shipped is made 

 out and signed by the Government agents in triplicate, one copy being 

 sent to the Treasury Department, one to the collector of San Fran- 

 cisco, the third given to the master of the vessel in which they are 

 shipped. The amount of the tax or duty paid by the company to the 

 Government is determined by the result of a final counting at the 

 custom-house in San Francisco. The books of the company show 

 that it has paid into the Treasury since the date of the lease (up to 

 the present writing, November 30, 1874) 1170,480.54 on account of 

 the rental of the islands and 11,057,709.74 as tax on the seal skms 

 taken. The latter sum is less by $16,458.03 than the tax that should 

 have been paid had 100,000 skins been taken each year since 1870, or, 

 in other words, 6,269 fewer skins have been shipped than the law per- 

 mitted. The record kept at the islands by both the Government's and 

 company's agents shows that in 1871 but 19,077 skins were taken from 



