i32 MANAGEMENT OF THE SEAL ROOKERIES. 



THE SLAUGHTER OF 18G8. 



When the United States came into possession 

 of these islands by the cession of 18G7, it was 

 impossible immediately to formulate an admin- 

 istrative system for all portions of the territory 

 then so little known and so distant from the seat 

 of government. The year ] 868 was one of inter- 

 regnum at the Pribilof Islands. Prof. W.^ H. 

 Dall visited them that year, and briefly de- 

 scribes the state of affairs there existing. He 

 says: " During my visit to St. George Island in 

 1868 this vast territory of Alaska had just fallen 

 into the possession of the United States, and the 

 Government had not yet fairly established more 

 than the beginning of an organization for its 

 management as a whole, without mentioning such 

 details as the Pribilof Islands. In consequence 

 of this state of affairs, private enterprise in the 

 form of companies dealing in furs had established 

 numerous sealing stations on the islands during 

 1868. During my stay, except on a single 

 occasion, the driving from the hauling grounds, 

 the killing and skinning, was done by the natives' 

 in the same manner as when under the Russian 

 rule, each competing- party paying them so nuicli 

 per skin for their labor in taking them. Despite 

 the ver^ bitter and more or less unscrupulous com- 



