THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 157 



38. COMMENTS UPON THE LEGISLATION OF CONGRESS. 



Ratio of catch at first incorrectly apportioned. — The original text of the existing law for the 

 protection of the seal-islands, provides that the 100,000 seals which may be annually taken from them shall be 

 proportioned by killing 75,000 on St. Paid and 25,000 on St. George. This ratio was based evidently upon the 

 foregoing table of Veniaminov, which, if accurate, would clearly show that fully one-third as many seals repaired to 

 the smaller islaud as to the larger one, aud until I made my surveys, 1872-74, it was so considered by all parties 

 interested. The fact, however, which I soon discovered, is that St. George receives only one-eighteenth of the 

 whole aggregate of fur-seal visitation peculiar to the Pribylov islands, St. Paul entertaining the other seventeen 

 parts. 



Reason for amendment of 1874. — This amazing difference, in the light of prior knowledge and understanding, 

 caused me, on returning to Washington in October, 1873, to lay the matter before the Treasury Department, and 

 ask that the law be so modified that, in the event of abnormally warm killing-seasons, a smaller number might 

 be taken from St. George, with a corresponding increase at St. Paul; for, unless this was done, it might become at 

 any season a matter of great hardship to secure 25,000 killable seals on St. George, in the short period allotted by 

 the law of July 1, 1870. The Treasury Department, while fully concurring in my representations, seemed to doubt 

 its power to do so; then, with its sanction, I carried the question before Congress, January, 1874, and secured from 

 that body an amendment of the act of July 1, 1870, above quoted in full (act, etc., approved March 24, 1874), which 

 gives the Secretary of the Treasury full discretion in the matter, and fixes the hitherto inflexible ratio of killing 

 on each islaud upou a sliding scale, as it were, for adjustment from season to season, upon a more intelligent 

 understanding of the subject; and, also, this amendatory act grants an extension of the legal limit of killing, by 

 giving the Secretary of the Treasury the power to fix it annually. 



Law works well. — As the law is now amended, the killing on the two islands can be sensibly adjusted each 

 season, by the relative number of seals on the two islands, which will vary so markedly on St. George according as 

 it may be abnormally dry and warm when the period for driving the "holluschickie" is at hand.* 



Special Agents of the Treasury Department. — Prior to March, 1872, the supervision of the Treasury 

 Department over its interests on the Pribylov islands was directed by the detail of special agents from the Secretary, 

 who paid them out of a contingent fund of $50,000, which Congress voted in 18C8 for the "collection of customs" 

 in Alaska; this appropriation running out, the secretary drew the following bill, which Congress adopted, aud it 

 was approved March 5, 1872 : 



Section I. Be it enacted, etc., That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized to appoint one agent and three 

 assistant agents, who shall be charged with the management or the seal-fisheries in Alaska, and the performance of such other duties as 

 may lie assigned to them by the Secretary of the Treasury; and the said agent shall receive the sum often dollars per diem; one assistant 

 agen! the sum of eight dollars per diem; and two assistant agents the sum of sis dollars each per diem while so employed ; and they shall 

 also be allowed their necessary traveling expenses in going to and returning from Alaska, such expenses not to exceed the sum of three 

 hundred dollars in any one year. 



Sec. II. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and is hereby, authorized to erect a dwelling-house upon 

 each of the islands of St. Paul and St. George, for the use of said agents, the cost of both not to exceed the sum of six thousand dollars. 



Sec. III. And be it further enacted, That the said agents be, and they are hereby, empowered to administer oaths in all cases relating 

 to the service of the United States, and to take testimony in Alaska for the use of the government in any manner concerning the public 

 revenues. 



Under this law the present force of treasury officers is creditably maintained on the Pribylov islands. Living 

 there, as they do, in perfect isolation, so far from headquarters, it is necessary that, to insure the personal ability 

 of the officers to be out on the killing-grounds in the sealing-season, two agents at least should be detailed upon 

 each island, as they are; should one fall sick, then the other is on hand. The work every year of taking the seals, 

 like the moving of the tides, cannot and will not wait for any man; it is literally "now or never!" with its conduct. 



"Upon my urgent and persistent representations, the law directing, and appropriating for, the maintenance of a revenue cutter in 

 Alaska waters, for the protection of the seal-islands and sea-otter hunting-grounds, was inserted in the sundry civil budget for 1ST"; and, 

 in May of that year, the late Capt. George W. Bailey, in the United States revenue marine cutter "Richard Rush", sailed on that errand 

 from San Francisco. This special service has been continued ever since, and now will remain a regularly snstained action on the pari of 

 the department, I trust. The excellent record and efficiency of the supervision rendered by the revenue marine in Alaska has been so well 

 maintained and is so apparent, that I do not see how it can be suffered to fall. It is the only effective arm of the United States government 

 in that region, or that has ever been so. All travel in that country is essentially by water; nine-tenths of its people live by the seaside. 



The fur-seals of Alaska, collectively and individually, are the property of the general government, and for their special and sole 

 protection the extra legislation of July, 1870, was designedly enacted. Every fur-seal playing in the waters of Bering sea around about 

 the Pribylov islands, no matter if found so doing one hundred miles away from those rookeries, belongs there, has been begotten and 

 born thereon, and is the animal that the explicit shield of the law protects; no legal sophism or quibble can cloud the whole truth of 

 my statement. Construe the law otherwise, then a marine license of hunting beyond a marine league (3 miles) from the shores of 

 tin- Pribylov islands, would soon raise up such a multitudinous Beet, that its cruising could not fail, in a few short years, in so harassing 

 and irritating the breeding-seals as to cause their withdrawal from the Alaskan rookeries, and probable retreat to those of Russia— a 

 source of undoubted Muscovitic delight and emolument, and of corresponding shame and loss to us. 



The matter is, however, now thoroughly appreciated and understood at the Treasury Department, and has been during the past 

 four years, as the seal pirates have discovered to their chagrin and discomfiture. 



