ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 295 



seems necessary that some means should be provided for securing to all 

 equal protection in the rights of person and property. This could be 

 accomplished for the present, at least, by giving them authority some- 

 what similar to that of justice of the peace, making them responsible 

 to the Secretary of the Treasury for the proper performance of that 

 duty, as they are for that of those with which they are now charged. 

 The seals furnish the natives with a comfortable and certain living, 

 their flesh serving them for food, and the taking of their skins bringing 

 substantial income. 



THE LEASE OF THE ISLANDS. 



In June, 1870, Congress passed an act entitled "An act to prevent 

 the extermination of fur-bearing animals in Alaska," which authorized 

 the Secretary of the Treasury to lease to ijrivate parties for a term of 

 years the right to engage in the business of taking fur seals on the 

 islands of St. Paul and St. George, under certain specified conditions 

 and restrictions. Therefore the subject was publicly advertised and 

 bids solicited, the privilege to be awarded to the highest responsible 

 bidder. A number of individuals doing business in San Francisco, 

 under the firm name of the Alaska Commercial Company, were the suc- 

 cessful bidders, and the right was granted to them under the terms of 

 the lease now in force (a copy of which is annexed) for a period of twenty 

 years from the 1st day of May, 1870. The terms were not arranged 

 and the lease delivered until the 31st day of August, 1870, and the 

 vessels and agents of the company did not reach the islands until the 

 1st of October. The season allowed by law for killing seals being nearly 

 over, but fev,' were taken that year (3,418 on St. Paul and 5,780 on St. 

 George), but the following and each succeeding year they have taken 

 the stipulated number. When the lease was made it was erroneously 

 supposed that there were about one-third as many seals on St. George 

 Island as on St. Paul, and in consequence the number to be taken from 

 each island was fixed at 25,000 and 75,000 respectively. In reality 

 there are only about one- eighteenth as many on the former as the latter, 

 which fact having been clearly shown last year by Mr. Elliott, the 

 apportionment was changed to 10,000 for St. George and 90,000 for St. 

 Paul, according to the terms of the lease. In consideration of being 

 the only company allowed to take fiir seals upon the islands, the Alaska 

 Commercial Company has agreed to pay a yearly rental for the use of 

 the islands, and a tax or duty upon each skin taken and shipped from 

 them; not to kill more than the stipulated number of seals, and seals 

 of a particular kind ; not to molest them upon the rookeries or in the 

 water, and to do nothing which would tend to frighten them from the 

 islands; to provide for the comfort, maintenance, education, and pro- 

 tection of the native inhabitants, and neither to furnish nor to allow its 

 agents to furnish distilled spirits or spiritous liquors to any of the 

 natives. 



The company employs on St. Paul an agent who has general charge 

 of the business on both islands, three assistants, a physician, a school- 

 teacher, three carpenters, a cooper, a steward and cook ; and on St. 

 George an agent, a physician, a school teacher, and a cook. 



The great work of the season, tbe taking and curing of seal skins, 

 begins the first week in June, and is pushed forward as rapidly as 

 possible, as the skins are in the best condition early in the season. 

 This year 90,000 skins were taken on St. Paul by 81 men in thirty- 

 nine days. The natives do all the work of driving, killing, and skin- 

 ning the seals, and of curing and bundling the skins, under the 



