44(? ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



It should be borne in mind as this table 1 is scanned, that during all 

 this time, from 1817 down to 1834, all sorts of " halfway measures " were 

 being tried without success by the Russian-American Company so as 

 to try and save the seal life, and yet at the same time, continue a modi- 

 fied annual killing for shipment. They finally concluded, in 1834, as a 

 result of a " half measure" of saving, they ought to get at least 20,000 

 to 25,000 skins of 1 and 2 year olds (taking them just as they came, for 

 that matter); but after "all possible exertion," only 12,700 skius were 

 secured, and the natives declared the ruin of these rookeries at hand 

 if another such a season of driviug and killing was inaugurated. The 

 company then reluctantly but wisely ordered that cessation of sealing 

 which Shaishnikov's list testifies to. 



A study of this killing throughout the "zapooska"of 1834, on St. 

 Paul Island, shows that for a period of seven years, from 1835 down to 

 the close of the season of 1841, no seals practically were killed save 

 those that were needed for food and clothing by the natives; and that 

 in lS35,for the first time in the history of this industry on these islands^ 

 ivas the vital principle of not hilUnci female seals recognized. It will 

 be noticed that the entry for each and every year distinctly specifies 

 so many "bachelor seals," or " hoUuschickov kotovie" ("Xo.iocwuAor 

 Komohuarb^'). The sealing, in those early days, was carried on all 

 through the summer, until the seals left in October or J^Tovember, on 

 account of the tedious method, then in vogue, of air-drying the skins. 

 This protracted driving, after the breaking up of the breeding sea- 

 son by the end of July, caused them to take up at first, hundreds, and 

 thousands later on, of the females in the same mauner that they have 

 been driven up during the last two seasons of 1889 and 1890; but they 

 never spared those cows then, when they arrived in the droves on the 

 killing grounds prior to this date, above quoted, of 1835, 



In 1842-43 it will be observed that the killing is advanced to a total of 

 9,000 and 10,000 skins for these years, respectively : and. until 1854, this 

 killing was not greatly increased per annum; then it was suddenly put 

 up to 33,000 bachelor seals : and in 1857, the old natives assured me last 

 summer, there were as many seal son the islands then, as there were when 

 I recorded their area and position during 1872-1874: and, that from the 

 year 1854, the Russian Company never had any more concern as to the 

 supply of killable seals on the Pribilov Islands. They got annually 

 thereafter all that was ordered taken each season. 



While the supply of killable seals in 1890 was not near so low as that 

 of 1834, yet it was really as bad — worse, perhaps, when the calculations 

 of the old and new companies for the season's catch are taken into 

 account, and icith reference to next year, far icorse, hecatise the addi- 

 tional danger and source of injury from pelagic sealing is added to the 

 cause for present declination of the rooTceries. It did not enter into 

 Russian calculations: the seals of Bering Sea were never seriously 

 disturbed by these hunters until 1880. • 



The condition of the Pribilov rookeries to-day is such as to make the 

 following imperative demands upon our Government, if they are to be 

 saved, as they should be, from speedy ruin : 



First. That no young male seals irhatsoever shall he Tcilled on these 

 islands as a source of revenue, either to the public Treasury or to private 

 corporations, for the next seven years, i. e., during the seasons of 1891-1898, 

 inclusive. 



This step is imperative : there was scarcely a drop of young male 

 blood in service on the breeding grounds of either St. Paul or St. George 

 throughout the reproductive season of 1890. There are no young bulls 



