ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 273 



followed ever since, giving tlie full ex]3ausion in 1857 to that extraor- 

 dinary increase and beneficial result which we observe thereon to-day. 

 I have been much amused in reading (Allen : Hist. Pinnipeds, ]}. 383) 

 the argument of an old sailor, who had been stationed for eight years 

 on these islands in charge of the United States Treasury interests. 

 He claims to feel well assured that the female seals, when two years 

 old, never land on the islands during that season of their age; remain- 

 ing out at sea, and not coming to the Pribilof rookeries until their third 

 year of growth, thus bearing their first young when four years old. I 

 mention the fact, because it is not an original error of the aged Treas- 

 ury agent, but is evidently adopted from this account of Veniaminov, 

 which was verbally translated and read to him in 1869, on St. Paul 

 Island, by one of the ex-agents of the Eussian company. The erro- 

 neous statement, however, is quoted in Allen, Pinnipeds (p. 383), with 

 a grave preface by the author that it is the result of eight years' study 

 of the subject on the islands. Unfortunately, Veniaminov himself 

 did not spend even eight consecutive weeks on the seal grounds in 

 question, and had he passed eight months there, investigating the 

 matter, he would not — could not — have made this superficial blunder, 

 in addition to his numerous other faulty announcements, etc., which 

 the "Zapieskie" teems with, in regard to the seal life. 



Causes which occasion and demand the presence of a rev- 

 enue-marine CUTTER IN Alaskan waters. — There remains an un- 

 written page in the history of the action of the Government toward 

 the protection of seal life on the Pribilof Islands, and it is eminently 

 proper that it should be inscribed now, especially so since the author 

 of this memoir was an eyewitness and an actor in the scene. When he 

 first visited the seal islands, in 1872-73, he was compelled to take pas- 

 sage on the vessels of the company leasing the islands; compelled, 

 because the Government at that time had no means of reaching the 

 field of action except by the favor and the courtesy of the Alaska 

 Commercial Company. This favor and this courtesy, as might be 

 expected, was always promptly and generously proffered and has never 

 been alluded to as even an obligation or service rendered the Treasury 

 Department. But, nevertheless, the thought occurred to me at the time, 

 and was strengthened into conviction by 1871, that this indifference to 

 its own self-respect and failure to supi)ort i^roperly the aims of its 

 agents up there should end, and that the Treasury Department should 

 detail one of its own vessels to visit, transport, and aid its officers on 

 the PribUof Islands, and also be an actual living evidence of power to 

 execute the law i)rotecting and conserving the same. 



In this sequence do not misunderstand me; while the Alaska Com- 

 mercial Company never entertained, and do not now entertain, the 

 thought of refusing the favor asked by the Government in transporting 

 its own Treasury officials to and from the seal islands, yet it would be 

 a relief to that company if those agents aforesaid should be carried up 

 and down upon the vessels of the Government — a relief solely on the 

 ground that a carping criticism is always made upon their courtesy and 

 kindness in this respect and a corresponding reflection thrown upon 

 the Treasury agents, who are compelled to take this method of con- 

 veyance or else be absent from their field of duty, which the company 

 does not propose to effect by barring them from its steamer, the afore- 

 said criticism notwithstaiuling. 



Therefore, upon the occasion of my return fi'om the field in question, 

 October, 1871, 1 clearly recognized the immediate necessity of streugth- 



H. Doc. 92, pt. 3 18 



