American Fisheries Society 221 



breeders should be reserved; and that included all the 

 female seals without any exception whatever, and included 

 a sufficient number of males to serve those females. Bear 

 in mind that the fur seal is polygamous and not as many 

 males are needed as females. 



The lease of the North American Commercial Company 

 expired at the end of last April. Just before the expiration 

 of that lease the Government considered the advisability of 

 renewing the lease or not. The conclusion was reached 

 that it would be better under the circumstances for the 

 Government not to renew the lease but to take over the 

 entire business. So on the twenty-first of April Congress 

 passed a bill which provided for taking over the entire seal- 

 ing business so far as the islands are concerned. The lease 

 was n(|t renewed. 



Taking over the business then meant this : that the United 

 States Government must maintain upon the islands the 

 necessary equipment for carrying on the sealing business on 

 the islands; it must provide food and clothing for the 

 natives ; it must provide houses in which they may live ; and 

 it must have the salt houses and the boats and all the para- 

 phernalia necessary to carry on the business. The houses 

 in which the natives lived belonged to the North American 

 Commercial Company; everything on the islands except a 

 Government house and a few other things on each, belonged 

 to the North American Commercial Company. So it was 

 necessary to take over those buildings or raze them and 

 erect others in their places. 



Now Congress made an appropriation of $150,000 with 

 which to carry on the business this year. That $150,000 is 

 being used in these ways : To defray the expenses of the 

 purchase of the necessary food and clothing to send to the 

 islands for the use of the natives ; to defray the expense of 

 transportation ; the Government had no vessel so we had 

 to charter a vessel to take the supplies to the islands ; that 

 $150,000 includes the amount which it will be necessary to 

 pay the North American Commercial Company for its 



