THE EUSSIAN FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 91 



and, not to be forgotten, plenty of alcohol. In retuiu they brought away as many 

 pelts as they could induce the natives to secure. The rivalry between the traders was 

 very sharp and the natives had high carnival most of the time as a consecjuence. 

 Gambling and drinking prevailed to a fearful extent, and the natives were willing to 

 sell anything and everything for whisky. The drunken debauches were carried on 

 right on tlie rookeries, and it is authoritatively stated that, as the skins of tlie female 

 seals were higher priced, because of their finer fur, quite a number of this class were 

 slain. Besides, drunken men would not be very apt to discriminate as nicely as neces- 

 sary to distinguish the females from the bachelors. It is also authoritatively asserted 

 tiiat a count of the skins taken was never kept, neither by the natives nor by the police 

 authorities in Petropaulski. The figures presented elsewhere, giving the total export 

 of skins for the period as from 00,000 to 05,000, are, therefore, only guesses and are 

 probably underestimated rather than overestimated. At least one of the vessels, 

 with its valuable cargo of furs, was lost. As a result of this reckless slaughter the 

 rookeries were nearly ruined in those three years. 



In 1871 there was a wholesome awakening. Hutchinson, Kohl & Co., a San Fran- 

 cisco firm which had already acquired extensive property and trading rights in Alaska, 

 had opened negotiations with the authorities at St. Petersburg for a lease of the islands 

 on i)ractically the same conditions upon which the Alaska Commercial Company 

 leased the Pribylof Islands of the United States, and the contract was signed Feb- 

 ruary 18, 1871, but was kept a profound secret until the following summer. In the 

 meantime the Ice Company, ignorant of the lease and in anticipation of a i)rofltable 

 season, had dispatched a large cargo of merchandise to the islands. Shortly after 

 the representative of the new company arrived with the lease and took possession. 

 As the lease not only included the monopoly of taking the furs but also of trading 

 with the natives, there was no other choice for the Ice Company but to sell out to its 

 successful rival at a ruinous ])rice. So well had the secret been kept that even the 

 ispravnik at Petropaulski, who was still to retain jurisdiction over the islands, did 

 not know of the lease and the impending change until it was presented to him by the 

 company's representative alluded to. 



With the taking of possession by the new company a new order of things com- 

 menced. The firm's name was altered to Hutchinson, Kohl, Philippeus & Co. It 

 had been necessary, in order to obtain the lease from the Eussiau authorities, to 

 include at least one Russian subject in the firm, and ^Ir. Philipxieus, a Russian 

 nierchant having great trading interests in Kamchatka and neighboring districts, 

 was paid a considerable amount for the use of his name in this connection. Nomi- 

 nally, therefore, the company was Russian, but practically it was American. Tlicir 

 vessels were flying the Russian flag, but they were American property. In 1872 

 Hutchinson, Kohl & Co. sold their interest and property in Alaska to the Alaska 

 Commercial Company of San Francisco, members of which also acquired a controlling 

 interest in the Russian company. From that time on until the ex^jiration of the 

 lease in Febi'uary, 1891, the management of the company's afi'airs on the Commander 

 Islands and Tiuleni Island were in the hands of the celebrated firm, with head- 

 quarters at 310 Sansome Street, San Francisco. 



The management now became practically identical with that on the Pribylofs, and 

 an emidoyee from the latter was sent over to the Commander Islands to teach the 

 natives the improved methods of taking the seals and curing the skins adopted 



