THE RUSSIAN FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 89 



By the establislimeut of the great liussian-Aiuericaii Company, in 1700, Shelikofs 

 enterprise was merged into the hirger concern, and the Commander Islands became 

 part of what was from now on in i-eality a Russian colony. The sujtply of fur-bearing 

 animals must have become practically exhausted on the Commander Islands by that 

 time, for the islands were abaniloned and vessels touched but seldom, scarcely one in 

 five years. In ISiiG, during the second term of the Ilussian-American Company, a 

 new district, the district of Atlvha, was formed, consisting of the Commander Islands 

 and the western portion of the Aleutian chain from Attn to the island of Yunaska, 

 consequently including the Near Islands, the Itat Islands, and the Andrcanof group. 

 The agency was located on Atkha Island. 



Shortly afterwards the permanent colonization of tlie Comniandi'r Islands was 

 undertaken, and Aleuts and half breeds from the Andreanof Islands and from Attn 

 were transferred to the new settlements on Copper and Bering islands. This was 

 accomplished before lSl!8, in which year Admiral Liitke, in the corvette Scniarin, 

 visited the latter island and communicated with the inhabitants of the settlement at 

 Sarauna, on the north coast.' 



A'ery little is known concerning the islands and the seal industry on the islands 

 during their occupancy by the Eusslau-American Company. Its jealousy of both 

 foreign and domestic interference caused it to keep all details of its dealings secret, 

 and as the islands were entirely away from the ordinary line of travel, scarcely any 

 outside information is to be had. The overseers were i)robably unimportant, possibly 

 uneducated, persons, and the reports of the inspectors occasionally visiting the islands 

 are i)robably buried in the St. I'etersburg archives of the company. 



There can be no doubt that the alarming decrease in the Pribylof catch, which in 

 ten years dropped from 00,000 skins to less than 20,000, caused the company to colo- 

 nize the Commander islands in order to work the seal rookeries there. In ISlil this 

 decrease was threatening enough to make the board of administration of the company 

 suggest stopping killing on the I'ribyloCs altogether for one season, if certain islands 

 which were supi)osed to exist north of the Pribylof Islands should be found to be 

 fictitious or not to harbor the lioped-for fur-seals (Fur Seal Arb., Viii, p. 3l,'3). The 

 discovery was evidently not made, and the reoccupation of the Commander Islands 

 resulted. 



It seems, however, that the Creek war of independence against Turkey had a 

 depressing effect on the fur market of Europe, and it is therefore notinijjrobable that 

 the Pril)ylof Islands were capable of tilling the demand until the restoration of order 

 in that part of the world, about IS.'JO. By this time the annual yield of the Pribylofs 

 had fallen to 10,000, and shortly after even as low as 0,000, the average during the ten 

 years from IS.'j2 to IS-Il, inclusive, being less than i),700 skins a year. As I have sliown 

 elsewhere, this was not nearly (mougli to satisfy the demand, which probably averaged 

 in the neighborhood of 2.5,000 during this period, and the deficiency was probably 

 made up in the Connnander Islands. 



With the destructive methods then in vogue, it is not to be wondered at if the 

 Commander Islands were unable to furnish an annual (juota of, say, 14,000 .skins for 

 any considerable length of time. The close season which Chief Manager Etholin 

 asked for and probably instituted in 1843 was therefore very necessary. From this 



' This fact shows that DyTiowski's Btatomcnt that the sottlemeiits were uot cstahlisheil uutil 183C 

 (Wyspy Komand., p. 36) is erroneous. 



