ALASKA AND ITS FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY. 



9 



cisco. This company was organized by Mr. H. 

 M. Hutchinson and Captain Ebenezer Morgan, 

 who were the first persons to visit the islands 

 in search of seals (in 1868) after they had passed 

 into the possession of the United States. They 

 perceived what the islands could be made to 

 yield permanently under proper regulations, 

 and also that the seals would be speedily ex- 

 terminated if such regulations were not adopt- 

 ed. They accordingly procured an order from 

 the Treasury Department declaring the islands 

 a governmental reservation, and afterward an 

 act of Congress for the protection of the fur- 

 bearing animals on the islands. This act limits 

 the time when the seals may be killed to the 

 months of June, July, September, and Octo- 

 ber in each year ; prohibits killing by fire-arms, 

 or any other means that will tend to drive the 

 seals away, as well as the killing of female 

 seals or of any seals less than one year old ; 

 and the killing of any seals in the waters or 

 "on the beaches, cliffs, or rocks where they 

 haul up from the sea to remain " ; limits the 

 number that may be killed to 100,000 in 

 each year, besides what the natives may re- 

 quire for their food; and provides for the 

 leasing of the exclusive privilege of killing the 

 seals for the term of twenty years. The lease 

 was awarded to the Alaska Commercial Com- 

 pany, whose charter, rules, and regulations 

 have been framed to accord with the provisions 

 of the law. Practically the company does not 

 allow more than 99,850 seals to be taken on 

 its account in a single year. The natives use 

 5,000 or 6,000 more. The company employs a 

 fleet of four steamers and a dozen or fifteen 

 sailing-vessels, and gives its principal attention 

 to the seal-islands, while it has also stations 

 scattered over the Aleutian Islands and that 



Sirt of Alaska west and north of Kadiak. 

 utside of the seal-islands, all trade in Alaska 

 is open to the public. 



The whole number of breeding-seals and 

 their young on the two islands was calculated 

 from actual survey in the season of 1873 to be 

 3,193,420. This enormous aggregate is entirely 

 exclusive of the great numbers of non-breeding 

 seals, to which the killing is confined, which 

 are never permitted to come to the breeding- 

 grounds. The animals of the latter class are 

 nearly equal in number to the adult breeding- 

 seals, and may therefore be counted at at least 

 1,500,000 ; so that the grand total of the fur- 

 seal life on the Pribylov Islands is represented 

 by more than 4,700,000 individuals. 



The theoretical value of the interests of the 

 Government on the islands, measuring it by the 

 value of 2,500,000 or 3,000,000 adult fur-seals, 

 male and female, in good condition, is estimated 

 by Mr. Henry W. Elliot, of the United States 

 Commission of Fish and Fisheries, to be not 

 less than $10,000,000 or $12,000,000; taking, 

 however, the females out of the question and 

 from^the calculation, and including the "hol- 

 luschickie " alone, as they really represent the 

 only killable seals, then the commercial value 



of the same would be expressed by the sum of 

 $1,800,000 to $2,000,000 a sum which stands 

 as a permanent principal in the islands, and re- 

 turns the public Treasury upward of $317,000, 

 or more than 15 per cent, annually. 



In answer to the question, which has been 

 frequently asked him whether the seals are 

 not in danger of being exterminated at the 

 present rate of killing them Mr. Elliot says 

 that, provided matters are conducted on the 

 islands in the future as they are to-day, and no 

 plague or abnormal causes of destruction arise, 

 one hundred thousand seals under the age of 

 five years, and more than one year old, maybe 

 safely taken every year, without the slightest 

 injury to the birth-rates or regular increase. 

 This assertion is based on the estimate that 

 about a million "pups," or young seals, are 

 born on the islands every year, of which about 

 one half, or 500,000, are males. These ani- 

 mals reach the sea, having suffered a loss of not 

 more than one per cent, but are there exposed 

 to destruction by various agencies, in conse- 

 quence of which not more than half of them, 

 or 250,000 males, return in the following year. 

 After that time the causes of destruction are 

 less extensively operative, and 225,000 out of 

 the original 500,000 male young, with as many 

 females, may be expected to live out the ordi- 

 nary terms of their natural lives. Not more 

 than one in fifteen of the males born is needed 

 for breeding purposes in the future ; but, even 

 if one fifth of them are reserved, there are still 

 left 180,000 animals that might be safely killed 

 every year. Mr. Elliot further states his be- 

 lief that it is not possible by any management 

 materially to increase the production of the isl- 

 ands. The total number of skins taken from 

 1797 to 1880 is computed, from the best data 

 that can be obtained, at 3,561,051. The Alaska 

 Commercial Company paid into the Treasury 

 of the United States, from July, 1870, to Au- 

 gust, 1881, in taxes and rental, the total sum 

 of $3,452,408.50. The fur-seals are voracious 

 eaters, and live on fish, of which, estimating 

 that each individual requires ten pounds a day, 

 they can hardly consume less than six million 

 tons every year. They are also, in their turn, 

 particularly the young ones, preyed upon act- 

 ively by the killer- whale (Orca gladiator). 

 The most probable contingency under which a 

 change may be produced in the seal product- 

 iveness of the Pribylov Islands may possibly 

 arise from a diversion of the herds to Behring 

 and Copper Islands, of the Commander Group, 

 in Russian territory, which afford equally 

 favorable grounds for their rookeries, and are 

 now sparsely visited by them. No other coast 

 in the region is adapted to them. Between 

 1862 and 1880, 287,462 fur-seal skins were 

 shipped from the Commander Islands. 



Among other animals of the Pribylov Islands 

 which are applied to economical uses are the 

 sea-lions (Eumetopias Stelleri), which are little 

 appreciated in the commercial world, but are 

 invaluable to the natives. Their skins are used 



