THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 27 



of the skins after they had been brought down from the islands. It would not do to sell them up there to the highest 

 bidder, since that would license the sailing of a thousand ships to be present at the sale. The rattling of their 

 anchor-chains, and the scraping of their keels on the beaches of the two little islands, would alone drive every seal 

 away and over to the Russian grounds in a remarkably short space of time. The government would therefore 

 need to offer them at public auction in this country, and it would be simply history repeating itself — the government 

 would be at the mercy of any well-organized combination of buyers. The agents conducting the sale could not 

 counteract the effect of such a combination as can the agents of a private corporation, who may look after their 

 interest in all the markets of the world in their own time and in their own way, according to the exigencies of the 

 season and the demand, and who are supplied with money which they can use, without public scandal, in the 

 manipulation of the market. On this ground I feel confident in stating, that the treasury of the United States 

 receives more money, net, under the system now in operation, than it would by taking the exclusive control of the 

 business. Were any capable government officer supplied with, say, 8100,000, to expend in "working the market", 

 and intrusted with the disposal of 100,000 sealskins wherever he could do so to the best advantage of the 

 government, and were this agent a man of first-class business ability and energy, 1 think it quite likely that the 

 same success might attend his labor in the London market that distinguishes the management of the Alaska 

 Commercial Company. But imagine the cry of fraud aud embezzlement that would be raised against him, however 

 honest he might be! This alone would bring the whole business into positive disrepute, aud make it a national 

 scandal. As matters are now conducted, there is no room for any scandal — not one single transaction on the 

 islands but what is as clear to investigation and accountability as the light of the noonday sun; what is done is 

 known to everybody, and the tax now laid by the government upon, aud paid into the treasury every year by the 

 Alaska Commercial Company, yields alone a handsome rate of interest on the entire purchase-money expeuded for 

 the ownership of all Alaska. 



It is frequently urged with great persistency, by misinformed or mabcious authority, that the lessees can and do 

 take thousands of skins in excess of the law, and this catch in excess is shipped sub row to Japan from the Pribylov 

 islands. To show the folly of such a move on the part of the company, if even it were possible, I will briefly 

 recapitulate the conditions under which the skins are taken. The natives of St. Paul aud St. George do themselves, 

 in the manner I have indicated, all the driving and skinning of the seals for the company. No others are 

 permitted or asked to laud upou the islands to do this work, so long as the inhabitants of the islands are equal 

 to it. They have been equal to it and they are more than equal to it. Every skin taken by the natives is counted 

 by themselves, as they get 10 cents per pelt for that labor ; aud at the expiration of each day's work in the field, 

 the natives know exactly how many skins have been takeu by them, how many of these skins have been rejected 

 by the company's agent because they were carelessly cut and damaged in skinning — usually about three-fourths 

 of one. per cent, of the whole catch — and they have it recorded every evening by those among them who are charged 

 with the duty. Thus, were 101,000 skins taken, instead of 100,000 allowed by law, the natives would know it as 

 quickly as it was doue, and they would, on the strength of their record and their tally, demand the full amount of 

 their compensation for the extra labor; aud were any ship to approach the islands, at any hour, these people would 

 know it at once, and would be aware of any shipment of skins that might be attempted. It would then be the 

 common talk among the 39S inhabitants of the two islands, and it would be a matter of record, open to auy person 

 who might come upon the ground charged with investigation. (See note, 39, L.) 



Furthermore, these natives are constantly going to and from Ooualashka, visiting their relations in the Aleutian 

 settlements, hunting for wives, etc. On the mainland they have intimate intercourse with bitter enemies of the 

 company, with whom they would not hesitate to talk over the whole state of affairs on the islands, as they always do; 

 for they know nothing else and think of nothing else and dream of nothing else. Therefore, should anything be 

 done contrary to the law, the act could and would be reported by these people. The government, on its part, 

 through its four agents stationed on these islands, couuts these skins into the ship, aud one of their number goes 

 down to Sau Fraucisco upou her. There the collector of the port details experts of his own, who again count them 

 all out of the hold, and upon that record the tax is paid and the certificate signed by the government. 



It will, therefore, at once be seen, by examining the state of affairs on the islands, and the conditions upon 

 which the lease is granted, that the most scrupulous care in fulfilling the terms of the contract is compassed, and 

 that this strict fulfillment is the most profitable course for the lessees to pursue; aud that it would be downright 

 folly in them to deviate from the letter of the law, and thus lay themselves opeu at any day to discovery, the loss of 

 their contract, and forfeiture of their bonds. Their action can be investigated at auy time, any moment, by Con- 

 gress; of which they are fully aware. They cannot bribe these 308 people on thf islands to secrecy, any more suc- 

 cessfully than they could conceal their action from them on the sealing fields ; and any man of average ability could 

 go, and can go, among these natives and inform himself as to the most minute details of the catch, from the time the 

 lease was granted up to the present hour, should he have reason to suspect the honesty of the treasury agents. The 

 road to and from the islands is not a difficult one, though it is traveled only once a year. 



The subject of the method and direction of the business of sealing on these islands, involving as it does a 

 discussion of the law aud the action of the Alaska Commercial Company and the natives combined, will form a 

 thesis for another chapter. 



