102 liULLETIN OK THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



The only tigures relating directly to the yield of the Coniniandcr Islands during 

 this perioil are those by Tikhnienief, that there were exported from ISering Island, 

 during the third term of the Russian- American Company, 9,520 fur-seal skins (Istor. 

 Oboz. Obraz. Ross.-Amer. Komp., ii, p. 2'Mi). These figures, from the connection, are 

 meant to cover the whole export from the Commander Islands, as from the fact that 

 the population of Copper Island at that time was but 90, all told, it seems probable 

 that no fur-seals were taken on Copper Island at all. 



ADMINISTRATION. 



There remains to be said a few words concerning the Governm<'nt administration 

 of the Commander Islands. 



Before the establishment of the Ivussian-American Company the islands were 

 scarcely under any territorial Jurisdiction, though in reality they were undoubtedly 

 subject to the rule of the "commander" of Kamchatka, a naval officer residing in 

 Pctropaulski. With the advent of the Rus.sian- American Company the direct control 

 of these islands went out of the hands of the Itussian Covernment, Init it seems that 

 the company took but slight interest in them until 1S2G, in which year they were 

 incorporated into the Atkha District, with headquarters on Atkha Island. After the 

 permanent location of a colony, a Russian " overseer " was stationed on Bering Island. 



When, in 1868, the Russian-American Company's regime was at an end, the 

 islands returned to the jurisdiction of the "ispravnik" in Pctropaulski, while the 

 remainder of the Atkha District became part of the United States by the cession of 

 Alaska to the latter. Kamchatka being, since 1855, only a district of the so-called 

 Coast Province {Primorslcaya Olih(xt), the administration of the islands consequently 

 rested with the governor at Khabarovka, subject to the authority of the governor- 

 general of Eastern Siberia at Irkutsk. 



Thus things remained until the growing importance of the .seal business during 

 the lease to Hutchinson. Kohl, Pliilippeus & Co. made it desirable to locate a higher 

 official ou the islands to represent the Cxovernment in its dealings with the company 

 on the islands and to govern the natives. ^Ir. Nikolai Aleksandrovich Clrebiiitski 

 was selected as the first "administrator,"' landing on Bering Island on August 21, 

 1877, and Las continued as such up to the present time. His long retention in office, 

 coupled with the firct that his salary has been raised repeatedly, that he has gradually 

 risen in rank, until he now holds that of a colonel, and that he has been decorated 

 several times, is ample proof that he has conducted the aftairs of the Commander 

 Islands to the full satisfaction of his Covernment. 



As subordinates, two kossaks from Kamchatka were stationed, one on each island. 

 Since 1890, however, another civil officer has l)een located on Copper Island, acting as 

 Mr. Grebnitski's assistant there. Until last year, when he had to seek a milder climate, 

 on account of broken health, this position was held by Mr, Nikolai Matveyevich 

 Tielmanu. His successor was on his way to the islands in the fall of 1895, on the bark 

 Brrinfi, but on account of the weather failed to make a landing aiul had to return to 

 Vladivostok. 



One of the first things attempted by Mr. Grebnitski, after imtting the community 

 affairs of the natives into shape, was to regulate the fur-seal business, i. e., the admin- 

 istrative portion of it as it related to the taking of seals on the rookeries, and the rules 

 first framed were embodied in an order {pi-ilcax) dated Ajiril 28, 1878 (o. s.), and the 

 second chapter of a regulation {prcdpisanie) of the following May 1 (o. s.). 



