212 AMERICAN MANAGEMENT. 



without mentioning: such details as the Pribilof Islands. In conse- 

 quence of this state of affairs private enterprise in the form of com- 

 panies dealing in furs had established numerous sealing stations on the 

 islands daring- 1808. During' my stay, except on a single occasion, the 

 driving from the hauling grounds, the killing, and shinning was done 

 by the natives in the same manner as when under Russian rule, each 

 competing party paying them so much per skin for their labor in taking 

 them. Despite the very bitter and more or less unscrupulous compe- 

 tition among the various parties, all recognized the importance of pre- 

 serving the industry and protecting the breeding grounds from moles- 

 tation, and for the most part were guided by this conviction. 



T.F.Morgan, p. 63. My knowledge of the catch of 186S enables me 



to state that the destruction of seals from all 

 sources in that year M r as about 240,000. This is 

 the maximum figure. 



Gustave Niebaum, p. 208. The various parties took that year about 230,000 

 seals, of which about 140,000 were killed under 

 my direction. 



AMERICAN MANAGEMENT. 



THE LEASE OF 1870. 



Tage 134 of The Case. 



No sealing was done at the Pribilof Islands during the seasons of 

 1809 and 1870 except for food for the natives, the 



Geo. B. Adams, p. 157. Government having declared these islands a 

 reservation, and the lessees did not perfect the 

 lease in time to commence operations that year (1870.) 



In the spring of 1809 I joined the United States revenue steamer 

 Lincoln, and made the summer's cruise in her of 



H. n. Mdntyre, p. 47. about four months, touching at many points along 

 the Alaska coast between Sitka and the most 

 westerly island of the Aleutian Archipelago, visiting the Pribilof group 

 twice (luring the season. 



The habits of the seals and manner of driving and killing them 

 during Russian occupation of the islands, and in 1808, after the trans- 

 fer of Alaska to the United States, were as carefully inquired into as 

 the limited time and opportunity would admit, and reported to the 

 Treasury Department under date of November 30, 1809 (House Ex. 

 Doc. 30, Forty-first Congress, second session). This report, together 

 with that of Special Agent Charles Bryant, formed the basis of subse- 

 quent legislation providing for the leasing of the right to kill 100,000 

 seals annually for their skins. The report was, in the absence of more 

 reliable information, largely based upon the traditions and opinions of 

 the natives and traders, to whom the management of the sealeries was 

 intrusted by the Russian Fur Company, and was afterwards found to 

 be erroneous in many particulars. Upon the main point, however, that 

 of fixing 100,000 seals as the proper number lobe killed annually, we 

 have shown by the experience of many years to have been correct. 



