CHAPTER VIII. 



THE FUR-BEARING ANIMALS OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE, 



THE FUR SEAL. 



THE million and a half sterling paid for Alaska in 1867 secured 

 to the United States the last remaining retreat of the pelt-bearing 

 ferce natures on the globe. To pay for a territory nine times the 

 size of England and Wales what we would expend upon two first- 

 class ironclads was not a bad bargain. A fraction less than a penny 

 per acre permits a good many of them to consist of barren rocks or 

 uninhabitable swamps, without making it a losing transaction. 

 And when we hear that on two of its tiny little islands, sixty 

 square miles in extent the famous Pribylofs Nature has created 

 and is maintaining a unique mine of untold wealth, that has 

 already more than repaid the Government dollar for dollar the 

 millions paid to Russia, the true character of astute Brother 

 Jonathan's last "Conquest by the Almighty Dollar" begins to 

 dawn upon one. If we add the further trifling detail that on 

 another tiny isle there is a gold mine that has already produced 

 more gold than the whole country cost, our admiration for 

 America's commercial wisdom is only increased. We begin to 

 realise, too, the true meaning of Charles Sumner's words when 

 advocating before Congress the acquisition of the Russian posses- 

 sions in America : " By this purchase," he is reported to have said, 

 " we dismiss one more monarch from this Continent." 



So much has been written about the seal that my attempt to add 

 to a large literature another general, though brief, summary will 

 probably be considered an unnecessary infliction, but these pages- 



