ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 257 



shall be proportioned by killing 75,000 on St. Panl and 25,000 on St, 

 George. This ratio was based evidently npon the foregoing- table of 

 Veniaminov, Avhich, if accurate, would clearly show that fully one- third as 

 many seals re])aired to the smaller island as to the larger one, and until 

 I made my surveys, 1872-1874, it was so considered by all parties inter- 

 ested. The fact, however, which I soon discovered, is that St. George 

 receives only one-eighteenth of the whole aggregate of fur-seal visita- 

 tion i^eculiar to the Pribilof Islands, St. Paul entertaining the other 

 seventeen parts. 



Reason for amendment of 1874. — This amazing difference, in the 

 light of prior knowledge and understanding, caused me, on returning to 

 Washington in October, 1873, to lay the matter before the Treasury 

 Department, and ask that the law be so modified that, in the event of 

 abnormally warm killing seasons, a smaller number might be taken 

 from St. George, with a corresponding increase at St. Paul; for, unless 

 this was done, it might become at any season a matter of great hardship 

 to secure 2o,(t00 killable seals on St. George in the short period allotted 

 by the law of July 1 , 1870. The Treasury Department, while fully con- 

 curring in my representations, seemed to doubt its power to do so ; then, 

 with its sanction, I carried the question before Congress, January, 1874, 

 and secured from that body an amendment of the act of July 1, 1870, 

 above quoted in full (act, etc., approved March 24, 1874), which gives 

 the Secretary of the Treasury full discretion. in the matter, and tixes 

 the hitherto inflexible ratio of killing on each island upon a sliding 

 scale, as it were, for adjustment from season to season, upon a more 

 intelligent understanding of the subject; and, also, this amendatory 

 act grants an extension of the legal limit of killing, by giving the 

 Secretary of the Treasury power to fix it annually. 



Law woeks well. — As the law is now amended, the killing on the 

 two islands can be sensibly adjusted each season by the relative num- 

 ber of seals on the two islands, Avhich will vary so markedly on St. 

 George according as it may be abnormally dry and warm when the 

 period for driving the "holluschickie" is at hand.^ 



•Upon my urgent and persistent representations, tlie law directing, and appropri- 

 ating for, the maintenance of a revenne cntter in Alaska waters, for the protection 

 of the seal islands and sea otter hnnting grounds, was inserted in the sundry civil 

 budget for 1877; and in May of that year the late Capt. George W. Bailey, in the 

 United States Revenue-Marine cntter Eichard Rush, sailed on that errand from San 

 Francisco. This special service has been continued ever since, and now will remain 

 a regularly sustained action on the part of the Department, 1 trust. The excellent 

 record and efficiency of the snpervision rendered by the Revenue Marine in Alaska 

 has been so well maintained and is so apparent that I do not see how it can be 

 suifered to fall. It is the only effective arm of the United States Government in that 

 region, or that has ever been so All travel in that country is essentially by water; 

 nine-tenths of its people live by the seaside. 



The fur seals of Alaska, collectively and individually, are the property of the 

 General Government, and for their special and sole jirotection the extra legislation 

 of July, 1870, was designedly enacted. Every fur seal playing in the waters of 

 Bering Sea around about the Pribilof Islands, no matter if found so doing 100 miles 

 away from those rookeries, belongs there, has been begotten and born thereon, and 

 is the animal that the explicit shield of the law protects. No legal sophism or quibble 

 can cloud the whole truth of my statement. Construe the law otherwise, then a 

 marine licvnse of hunting beyond a marine league (3 miles) from the shores of the 

 I'ribilof Islands would soon raise up such a multitudinous fleet that its cruising 

 could not fail, in a few short years, in so harassing and irritating the breeding seals 

 as to cause their withdrawal from the Alaskan rookeries and probable retreat to 

 those of Russia — a source of undoubted Muscovitic delight and emolument, and of 

 corresponding shame and loss to us. 



The matter is, however, now thoroughly appreciated and understood at the 

 Treasury Department, and has been during the past four years, as the seal pirates 

 have discovered to their chagrin and discomiiture. 



H. Doc. 92, pt. 3 17 



