THE RUSSIAN FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 119 



Alclsandcr II at Gliuka, but was found to have "4 to 5 fur-seals only." On the next 

 (lay .Mr. (Irebnitski boarded the schooner Ah.vaiKlrr, Captain Littlejohn. The latter 

 swore that he had shot the 5.'} seals found on board, denying that he had been near a 

 ro^keiy, and was warned oft'. Captain Sandman on August 12 confiscated 4 sea-otters 

 from the schooner Fli/hu/ Mist, Captain Bradford, which was found at anclior "around 

 the Northwest Cape (Copper Island) close inshore about 8' SE. from rocks,'' but with 

 "ajiparently no seals." 



On September 1 the kos.sak and a watchman boarded the schooner Seventy Six, 

 Captain Potts, oft' the Southeast Cape, Copper Island, finding only one man on board, 

 the rest being on shore. The watchmen went after them, but the schooner's crew 

 nnule directly for the vessel as .soon as they saw them coming, and got away. " On 

 shore the watchman found about 40 .seal carcasses which the schooner's people had 

 killed and skinned, all bulls." 



Tlie raiders did not confine themselves to Copper Island by any means, for on 

 September 10 an unknown schooner visited the South Rookery on Bering Island, 

 killing about 2.") seals, and two days later a schooner, possibly the same, was reported 

 "on the north side shooting seals at sea," but left on the approach of the steamer 

 AlchfdiKhr II. After the departure of the latter, the schooner came in again on 

 September 13, but the whaleboat which was sent ashore was driven away, by the 

 natives tiring at the crew, before auj' seals were killed. 



Captain Littleiohn, in the schooner Alexander, evidently took no heed of the 

 warning given him, for on October 16 he was on the Glinka Rookeries and took 

 " .some seals again," an exploit which he repeated on the moonlight night of the IStb, 

 when he secured "a number of seals (mostly cows) before morning." 



Although the record for 1881 is not quite so black, it is in some respects fully as 

 interesting. 



On Bering Island two schooners appeared at the North Rookery on October 8 

 ai\d landed 6 whaleboats, killing many seals, mostly females and young ones. Mr. 

 Grebnitski himself went to the rookery, l)ut the .schooner had already left. Exactly a 

 week later two schooners again arrived oft' the North Rookery, possibly the same, 

 landing ."> whaleboats early in the morning of October IG. This time, however, the 

 natives were ]irepared, and 40 of them, well armed Avitli rifles, met the raiders. The 

 latter now opened negotiations, the captain ort'ering a gold watch to the chief, money 

 to the men, and whisky to all for the privilege of taking 300 fur-seals. The natives 

 refused, and the raiders, after having examined some of the Berdan breech-loading 

 rifles and liaving received an aftinnative answer to their question whetlier the natives 

 would shoot if they should attempt to kill any seals, withdrew. "Seeing that they 

 could do nothing, they put to sea." 



It is probably to a raid in 1881 that Mr. S. L. Beckwith's testimony relates (Fur 

 Seal Arb., viii, j). 810), in which lie states that as " a mate on the vessel Alexander, 

 belonging to Hermann Liebes, of which Captain Carlson was master," "in 1880, or 

 thereabouts," he " went ashore and raided Copper Island, and got about 100 seals, and 

 we would have got a great nuiny more, for we had about 1,200 killed when we were 

 fired upon. A Japanese vessel was there the day before raiding and several of the 

 raiders were shot." This last information seems to tally with the following record 

 from Bering Island: "October 11. A schooner has been at Staraya Gavau. Buried 

 one Japanese." 



