172 RErORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



fully rooardod, so thiit tlicro was a gradual nnniorical increase from 1835 to 1857, 

 "when th(i rookeries are said to have become very nearly as large as now, the natives 

 Lelieving, however, tliat there has been since the last-mentioned date a very gradual 

 but steady increase.* 



604. From tlie experiences thus recorded, it appears to be very clearly 

 sliowii that in the a\erage of yeais the killing of 4(),00() to 50,()()() seals 

 on St. Paul was inoi-e than this, the piincipal seal-bearing island, could 

 stand, while that |>ractised during the later years of the Itussian con- 

 trol scarcely fall sliort of the figure at which all (continued increase in 

 number of seals would cease. Since the oi)erations of the Alaska 

 Commercial Company began, the number hxed for killing on St. Paul 

 Island has been very much higher than any of the foregoing figures. 

 It was originally fixed at 75,000 for St. Paul and 25,000 for St. George 

 Island, but the law was changed in 1871, so that even a larger propor- 

 tion of the whole number might be taken on St. Paul's. 



665. Captain Bryant elsewhere writes : 



During the administration of this able Governor (Shisenekoff ), these nurseries of 

 the seals had been developed from almost notliing to the condition in which they 

 were at the transfer of the islands to the United States. For many years they were 

 able to kill only a small number, but the seals gradually increased, so that they 

 killed as many as 40,000 in one year.t 



666. When, therefore, following the extraordinary slaughter of 186S, 

 it became lawful to kill 100,000 seals each year, changes of a very 

 marked kind might have been expected, and, as elsewhere detailed, 

 they soon began to be observed. 



667. The incidental waste entailed in taking the annual quota of skins 

 on the Pribyloft' Islands for the twenty years of the Alaska Commercial 

 Company's lease is aeknowledged by the official figures to have been 

 slightly greater than 7 per cent, of the whole number of skins secured. 

 This includes skins cut in skinning, " stagey" skins of seals killed for food 



when not merchantable, and a number of young unweaned pups 

 116 killed (it is now admitted unnecessarily) for native food. Besides 



these thus accounted for, however, there is reason to believe that 

 a large proportion of the seals which had been subjected to the very 

 severe ordeal of driving never afterwards recovered.^ Again, the dis- 

 turbance produced by various causes incidental to the habitation of 

 the islands, together with that, never wholly obviated, which arose 

 directly from the process of driving from the vicinity of the breeding- 

 grounds, led to various changes mimical to the favourable continuation 

 of seal life. 



668. Such causes began to operate with much increased force when 

 the general reduction became so considerable, that an ever-growing 

 difficulty arose in collecting the fixed annual quota of skins. In addi- 

 tion, the inefficient guarding of the breeding islands from raids made 

 upon their shores by marauders, due to the absence of methods of pro- 

 tection and laxity of control of the natives, became serious evils. 



669. Some of the more notable ill-effects which followed from the 

 practical working of the system of administration adopted, have already 

 been referred to at sufficient length, particularly in the x^aragraphs 

 (§396 et scq.) treating of changes in habits of the fur-seal, and those 

 outlining the general decrease in numbers resorting to the Pribyloflf 

 Islands. A few words may now be added, in greater detail, in relation 

 to the evidence showing the date of the commencement of the decrease 



* " Monograph of North American Pinnipeds, p. 379. 



t Ibid., p!: 389. 



t See especially in this connection Elliott's Official Report for 1890. 



