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ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



their being disturbed on the breeding rookeries or driven from the 

 islands. On the other hand, the question arises whether the killing of 

 the number above mentioned has or has not caused a decrease of the 

 seals. Judging from a comparison between the maps of the rookeries, 

 as they were in 1872, and the rookeries themselves this year, and from 

 the testimony of the best-informed men on the islands, both whites 

 and natives, I think it has not as yet. As the young males alone are 

 killed, injury would be effected through them, by not allowing a suffi- 

 cient number to reach maturity to supply the demands of the rook- 

 eries. They do not go on the rookeries until they are at least 6 years 

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

 the pups born then have reached that age. For that reason it seems 

 to me that it is too soon to decide whether we are killing too many or 

 not. It is possible that more, even twice as many, might be taken 

 without injury, but it would be making a severe and more hazardous 

 experiment, before any results have been obtained from the first. The 

 number now killed annually is entirely experimental, and we have 

 nothing to start from as a basis. Until the effect produced is satisfac- 

 torily shown, I would, therefore, not recommend an extension of the 

 contract as to the number of seals to be killed, until seven or eight 

 years from the date at which the one now existing went into effect, 

 when, if the rookeries have not decreased in size, it can safely be done. 



THE NATIVES OF THE ISLANDS. 



St. Paul and St. George islands were uninhabited when discovered 

 by Pribilof in 1786, but in that year, and at various times since, the 

 Eussian transferred a numbei- of Aleuts, with their families, from the 

 island of Unalaska to them. The descendants of these people, together 

 with a few Russian Creoles from various parts of the territory, are the 

 present native inhabitants of the islands. Their population on the 

 1st of August was as follows : 



They live in a single village on each island, the one on St. Paul situ- 

 ated at the southeastern end, and on St. Oeorge on the north shore. 

 They were Christianized by the Russians, and worship according to the 

 forms of the Greek Catholic Church. In disposition they are mild and 

 amiable, and are skillful and faithful workers at their business of takiaig 

 seal skins. 



Strictly speaking, there is no form of government among them, 

 though their chiefs, elected by themselves, have a certain degree of con- 

 trol, particularly in directing the labors of the sealers. They have a 

 great respect for law and authority, as disobedience to the comnnands of 

 their Russian rulers was punished with great severity. There have not 

 been many criminal cases or misdemeanors thus far since the transfer 

 of the territory, and none of a serious nature, merely a few cases of 

 assault and petty theft, which were readily settled by the Government 

 agent, assisted by the chiefs. But as the special agents of the Treasury 

 Department, who are the only representatives of the Government at the 

 islands, have not been invested as yet with any governing power, it 



