THE RUSSIAN FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 



TI.-THE RUSSIAN SEAL ISLANDS. 



Until the purcbuse of the Territory of Alaska by the United States, in 18(37, all 

 the resorts of the northern fur-seal north of California belonged to the Eu-ssian 

 Empire, and the fur-seal industry of the North Pacitic was entirely monopolized by 

 the Russian American Company. 



These resorts were in all instances uninhabited islands, and at the tinn^ of their 

 discovery by the Russian fur-hunters, in the middle and latter ]>art of the last century, 

 even unknown to the native races. Tlie seals when first fonnd on the rookeries, about 

 one hundred and fifty years ago, had never been interfered with by man while on their 

 breeding-grounds. Tlie islands alluded to were the Commander groui), certain small 

 islands in the Okhotsk Sea, certain small islands in the Kuril chain, and the Pribylof 

 group. 



In 1807 the Pribylof Islands were sold to the United States, and in 1870 Russia 

 ceded the Kurils to Japan in exchange for the southern half of the island of Sakhalin. 

 There i-emain thus, in tlie possession of the llnssiau Crown at the present date, only 

 the Conimandi'r Islands and the islands in the Okhotsk Sea. 



1.-THE COMMANDER ISLANDS. 



The Commander Islands (also occasionally called the Commodore Islands; Rus- 

 sian, Komanihirsli Ostrora), so named in memory of the great commander, Bering, 

 who discovered the group, comprise two main islands, Bering and Copper, situated 

 off the east coast of Kamchatka, between 54° 33' and 55° 2li' north latitude, and 

 105° -40' and 108^ 9' east longitude, approximately 97 miles from Cape Kamchatka, the 

 nearest point on the mainland. The southeast point of Copper Island is distant from 

 Attn, the nearest American island, about 180 miles, and is less than 75 miles from the 

 imaginary boundary line across Bering Sea between Russia and the United States. 

 The distance between BeriTig Island and the port of Petropaulski is somewhat more 

 than 280 miles, while a straight line between the nearest points of the Commander 

 group and tlie-Pribylof group is 750 miles. The steamer's track between the former 

 and San Francisco is something like 3,100 miles. 



Geographically the Commander Islands are the westernmost group of the 

 Aleutian chain. Politically, however, they form a separate administrative district of 

 the so-called Coast Province (rrtmorslai/d Ohla.st). This enormous territory extends 

 from Korea to the Arctic Ocean, and, including the peninsula of Kamchatka, is ruled 

 by the governor-general of the Aunir Province, residing at Khabarovka, on the Amur 

 Eiver, more than 1,200 miles, as the crow flies, from the Commander Islands. The 

 administrative position of these islands, however, is somewhat complicated, inasmuch 

 as they also depend directly under the Minister of the Imperial Domain in St. Peters- 

 burg, 4, COO miles away. In other words, their position corresponds very much to that 

 of our Pribylof Islands, which are subject both to the governor of Alaska and to the 

 Secretary of the Treasury. 



The Commander Islands were discovered on November 4, 1741 (old style). On 

 that day the vessel iSt. Peter, with the commander, 'S'itus Bering, and nearly the entire 



