232 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



Precautions necessary to successful eotanical work. — If 

 the following hints will serve to save the next collection of botanical 

 specimens that may be gathered on these islands, it is not superliuous 

 to j)i int them here. Let the collector take a large amount of bibulous 

 paper, and a small room all to himself; in the center of this apartment 

 place a little stove, with an '-organ" pipe; then fit up a series of broad 

 library shelves around the walls fiom the floor to the ceiling; upon these 

 shelves he will be enabled, aided by a low, steady fire, to dry the 

 intensely juicy leguminosa:', and several other exceedingly thick and 

 watery stemmed plants so peculiar to the Pribilof Islands, thus save 

 their color, and prevent them froiu turning black; a little fire must be 

 kei)t in the room all the time that the collection is in the process of 

 curing, and also after it is ready for use, ere leaving the islands. 

 When shipped it should be hung up, well boxed, in the fire room of the 

 steamer, or else, if the voyage happens to be unusually foggy and dila- 

 tory, it will sweat in the hold, or cabin even, and be entirely destroyed 

 before iSan Francisco is reached. I give these remarks advisedly and 

 feelingly, for I lost the result of a hard season's work in this line of 

 collection. By not appreciating these desiderata, another naturalist 

 may come here as I did, be charmed with the flora, as well as the fauna, 

 and after gathering hundreds of specimens at the expense of weary 

 weeks of constant tramping, lose them all. 



Courtesies extended to naturalists. — The Alaska Commercial 

 Comi)any afforded me every facility that I had the ingenuity to ask 

 for — giving me the unrestricted use of their men, their buildings, and 

 their experience. Had it been the direct labor of the company instead 

 of that in which I was engaged, 1 could not have had more attention 

 paid to me and my pursuits. They stand ready to do as much again 

 for any other accredited naturalist who may follow in my path over the 

 Pribilof Islands while they have control; this they will possess for 

 nearly another decade hence. 



VBNIAMINOV ON THE RUSSIAN SEAL INDUSTRY AT THE PRIBILOF 



ISLANDS. * 



[Translated by the author from Veniaminov's Zapieskie, etc., St. Petersburg, 1842, vol. li, pp. 568.'] 



Indiscriminate slaughter by the first discoverers. — From 

 the time of the discovery of the Pribilof Islands up to 1805 (or, that is, 

 until the time of the arrival in America of General Eesanov), the taking 

 of fur seals on both islands progressed without count or lists, and with- 

 out responsible heads or chiefs, because then (1787 to 1805, inclusive) 

 there were a number of companies, represented by as many agents or 

 leaders, and all of them vied with each other in taking as many as they 

 could befoi-e the killing was stopped. After this, in 1806 and 1807, 

 there were no seals taken, and nearly all the people were removed to 

 Unalaska. 



Partial check ordered. — In 1808 killing was again commenced; 

 but the people in this year were allowed to kill only on St. George. On 

 St. Paul hunters were not permitted this year or the next. It was not 

 until the fourth year after this tliat as many as half the number pre 

 viously taken were annually killed. From this time (St. George 1808, 

 and St. Paul 1810) ui) to 1822, taking fur seals progressed on both 

 islands without economy and witli slight circumspection, as if there 

 was a race in killing for the most skins. Cows were taken in the drives 



1 The italics are mine, and my translation is nearly literal, as might be inferred by 

 the idiom here and there. — H. W. E. 



