THE RUSSIAN FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 



97 



While thus the figures rehitiug to the Pribylof Ishiuds are dubious and unsatis- 

 factory, there are next to no records in regard to the catch on the Commander Islands 

 between 1787 and lSr»2. lu fact, there is hardly a scrap of available history to be 

 found on the subject during that period. 



There is no reason to doubt, however, that the slaughter of the fur-seals on the 

 Commander Islands after 1787 was as enormous as on the Pribylofs, proportionately 

 (where, according to my calculation, the average annual killing was 8(),511.)' The 

 rcsidt of this indiscrimiiuifr whoh'nnle slaughter undoubtedly brought the rookeries 

 to a very low ebb, for we find the Commander Islands practically abandoned shortly 

 after the establishment of the Russian-American C()iui)any, and a permanent popula- 

 tion was not again established mitil after 18:20, by which time the rookeries must have 

 recuperated to some extent. The same old method of killing the young ones, and 

 not even sparing the females, must soon have brought on the inevitable result of 

 dei>letion, for we find that the chief manager of the colonies, Capt. I. A. Kunrianof, as 

 early as 1839, had conferred with the baidar-steerer Shayashuikof as to when, in his 

 opinion, it would be possible to begin taking a full catch on St. Paul Island in order 

 to extdhlish a close time for sealint; on St. George and the Commander Islands, and that 

 Ca^itain ICtholin, his successor as chief manager, iu 181:2 asked permission to institute 

 a close season on the Commander Islands, a permission that was granted the following 

 year (Fur Seal Arb., xvi, pp. 7(1, 114).- 



Siiortly after, the prohibition to kill females was enforced, and as a result of both 

 measures the seals were again increasing, so that in 1859 the chief manager could 

 write to St. Petersburg that, according to the reports of the officials of " even those of 

 tlio Commander Islands, the seals have increased iu numbers on all accessible places 

 to such an extent that the areas occupied by them appear crowded." It is evident, 

 however, that the managers pi'oceeded with caution, notwithstanding, for in the years 

 from 1802 to 1807, the year of the final dissolution of the Russian-American Company, 

 only 4,000 to r),000 seals (gray pups) a year are said to have been taken. These figures 

 are from the following table, which is copied from the report of the British Bering 

 Sea commissioners (p. 214), those from 1865 being official : 



Skins Idken for shipment from Commander Islands, 1862-1S67, by the Russian- American Company 

 after the exjmation of its third term. 



ite of 

 given in the 



'Not only were females and pnps killed, but the "bulls and vouns bulls" .also, for in sp 

 their coarae liair the Chinese at Kiakhta jiaid high prices for them (Fnr Seal Arb., vii, p. 16.5). 



■Figures repie.sentinj; tlie catch during the Russian-American Comnany's terms are given i 

 hualtable of shipments by periods. 



'In Nordenskiold's "Voyage of the Vega," Am. ed., p. 609, there is a table of figures rel.ating to 

 the catch of seals on the Commander Islands involving several errors. Aside from the fact that 

 It purports to give the catch on Bering Island ouly, while in reality the figures represent tlie catch 

 on both Bering and Copper islands, it givis the catch for the year 1867 ,as 27,ii00 seals. Here is 

 app.-ircMtly a floubln error. Comp.-ired with the corrected figures given by Elliott (Monogr., p. 113), 

 27,;>00 IS evidently meant to include the catch from 1862 to 1867, inclusive, in which case, however, the 

 statement is •' fllln tn„ I, Irrli ' ' ' 



statement is 2,000 too high. 



F. C. B. 1896—7 



