88 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISU COMMISSION. 



IV.-THE RUSSIAN SEALING INDUSTRY. 



HISTORICAL. 



Even before the discovery of the Ooininaiider Islands, in 1741, the fur seals were 

 known to and hunted by the natives of Kamchatka. Krasheuinnilcof (Hist. Kanits- 

 chatka, 17G4, p. 124 seq.) refers to this cateli as follows: 



The sea cats are caught iu the spring auil in the month of September, about the river ShupaHiiva; 

 at which times tliey go from the Kurilskoi/ island to the American [i. e., Conimaudor Islands] coast: 

 but the most are catohed about the cai)o of Kronotzkoy, as between this and the capo SJiujiiiiKkoij the 

 sea is generally calm, and affords them properer places to retire to. Almost all the females that are 

 caught iu the spring are pregnant; and such as .are noar their time of bringing forth their young 

 are immediately opened, and the young taken out. and skinned. None of them are to be seen from 

 the beginning of June to the end of Aiir/ust, when they return from the south [!] with their youug. 

 * * * They seldom come ashore .about Eamlschatka; so that the inhabitants chace them iu boats, 

 and throw darts or harpoons at them, which stick in their body ; to this harpoon is lixed one end of a 

 rope, and the other is iu the vessel ; and by this ro])0 they draw them towards the boat ; but here they 

 are to be particularly cautious whenever they chace one, if he comes near, not to suffer him to fasten 

 upon the side of the boat with his fore paws, and overturn it; to prevent which some of the fishermen 

 stand ready with axes to cut off his paws. 



In later times there has been no such regular catch of fur-seals on the Kanichat- 

 kan coast, for the rea.sou that now the whole region from the Bay of Avatcha to the 

 mouth of the river Kamchatka is entirely uninhabited. 



Following the discovery of the Conmiandcr Islands numerous vessels were titled 

 out to hunt fur-bearing animals on these islands and, later, to lay iu provisions of 

 .sea-cow meat for use in their protracted journeys to the Aleutian Islands farther east 

 (see Stejneger, American ^STaturalist, 1887, ])p. 1049-1052). It does not seem, however, 

 as if the fur-seal skins were iu demand. The skins were not particularly valuable; 

 the sea-otters and blue foxes were still numerous; the men had more pressing and 

 profitable things to attend to; the drying of the seal skins was both laborious and 

 l^recarious in the damp climate; in brief, it did not pay to bother with the fur-seals at 

 that period. Later, however, all this was changed. The more costly furs were getting 

 scarce and the enterprising liussiau merchants, now following upon the heels of the 

 promyshleniks, or hunters, had found a i)rofitable market in China for large (piantities 

 of the cheaper fur-seal. Foremost among these merchants was (irigori Ivanovicli 

 Shelikof, whose name, from 1770 on to his death in 1795, was connected with the fur 

 trade and colonization of that part of the world. He seems to have been the first to 

 pay special attention to the skins of the fur-seal, and was for a long time the only 

 one who gathered them iu large quantities. 



The discovery of the Pribylof Islands, with their countless numbers of fur-seals, 

 did not seem to have made any diflference in this. On the contrary, the increased 

 supply seems to have created an increased demand. Under the pressure of a fierce 

 competition a senseless slaughter of the fur-seals was carried on until the whole 

 business was threatened with destruction, from which it was alone rescued by the 

 formation of a dominaut company, which soon swallowed up the smaller concerns and 

 obtained a monopoly of the entire trade of the region. 



