134 MANAGEMENT OF THE SEAL ROOKERIES. 



cautions the United States took up the consid- 

 eration of the most advantageous manner of 

 working- tlie seal industry. 

 The leaseof 1870. Various rccommeudations and suggestions 

 were made to the Congress of the United States 

 in rekation to this matter, but after a thorough 

 and careful examination of the various methods 

 proposed the most expedient was found to be 

 tlie leasing of the islands to a single, reliable 

 company, under the immediate supervision and 

 control of agents of the United States Treasury 

 Department duly appointed for that purpose. 

 Pursuant to such investigation and conclusion, 

 the Congress of the United States on July 1, 

 1870, passed an act accordingly,^ and in August, 

 1870, Mr. Boutwell, Secretary of the Treasury, 

 advertised for bids for the lease of the '' seal 

 fisheries" for twenty years. Of fourteen bids^ 

 offered by different companies and associations, 

 that of the Alaska Commercial Company, with a 

 capital of $2,000,000, was accepted by the Treas- 

 ury as the one best fitted to promote "the interests 

 of the Government, the native inhabitants, the 

 parties heretofore engaged in the trade, and the 

 protection of the seal fisheries," as required 

 by the act of July 1, 1870.=^ The method 



^ 1 U. S. stats, at Large, Vol. XVI, c. 1^9. 



2X1. R. Doc. No. 108, Forty-lirst Congress, pp. 5-9. 

 3I[. R. Doc. No. 108, Foity-lirst Congress, pp. 19, 20. 



