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House Calendar No. 87. 



j Report 

 ") No. 500. 



63d Congress, ) HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, j Report 



2d Session. f 



Us 



FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



April 4, 1914.— Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed. 



Mr. Rothermel, from the Committee on Expenditures in the Depart- 

 ment of Commerce, submitted the following 



REPORT. 



The Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce 

 proceeding under its general powers to inquire into the leasing of 

 sealing privileges on the Pribilof Islands of Alaska, the conduct of 

 the lessees on the said seal islands, the management by the officials 

 of the Government in charge of the fur-seal herd after the expiration 

 of said leases, beg leave to report as follows: 



Specific charges having been filed with the committee August 31, 

 1913, alleging that the agents of the Government had conspired wkji 

 the lessees of the seal islands to take seals in violation of law and the 

 provisions of their contract, and also that the said lessee company had 

 secured the lease from the Government by fraud and perjury, the 

 committee determined to investigate these questions and report its 

 findings of fact to the House. Extended hearings were had, begin- 

 ning October 13, 1913, and ended March 14, 1914. 



The committee, after due and careful deliberation, finds the fol- 

 lowing facts: 



I. That when the United States took possession of the fur-seal 

 herd, in 1867-68, by virtue of the treaty of cession from Russia, 

 and leased it to the Alaska Commercial Co., a corporation, for 20 

 years from May 1, 1870, the herd consisted of about 4,700,000 seals. 

 (See pp. 56-58, hearing No. 1.) During the period of this lease, 

 1870-1890, the lessees took 1,856,224 seals, deriving therefrom a net 

 profit of $18,753,911.20, while the net profit of the Government there- 

 from was but $5,264,230.08. (See hearing No. 1, pp. 176-178.) 



II. That on March 12, 1890, a second lease was entered into with 

 another corporation, known as the North American Commercial Co., 

 of San Francisco, for a period of 20 years. That when this lease was 

 executed a survey of the herd made in July of that year disclosed the 

 fact that there were about 1 ,000,000 seals on the islands. That this re- 

 duction of the herd was due to the combined effect of killing 100,000 

 seals annually on land, since 1870, and the energetic prosecution of 

 pelagic sealing, first begun in a noteworthy degree in 1883-84, and 

 then actively prosecuted since 1888. (See pp. 183-184, heari 



