1 BO SIUKltlA. 



li;iv(.' no iiii|)oiiiiiii". J I was asceitaiiidl lliat upon Bobriug Island at a particular Stiasoii 

 of Iho year tin; fur soals appiiai- in (3norraous numbers. However the hunters, intimately 

 acquaintfid with tin; soal industry, wore convinced that hosidos the said group of islands th- 

 seal must have otlit-i' asylums, in the si-arch for which much time and trouble were ex- 

 pended. A daring skipper, Prihylov, in a small sailing craft, the tSt. George*, sp<int two 

 years in such (|ii(!sls, i'ortuuatoly crowned with complete success by the discovery of a group 

 of islands in the sauje Bt.'hring Sea, and called in honour of this navigator, Ihe Piibyl(tv>. 

 One of those islamls was named after the ship St. George; another, St. Paul. Inde|)endently 

 of the two ahovc-nami'il navigiiiors, in tin' part of the Pacific between the north-western 

 shore of America ami the north-eastern shore of Siberia, there constantly hovered a crowii 

 of ditferent adventurers, hunters of fur animals, who not seMom succeeded in discovering new 

 lands and planting there the Russian flag. Thus, the sailor Nevodchikov, in charge of the 

 merchant Guprov's expedition, discoverd in 1745 the Blizhni, Attn and Agatu islands. In 175(t 

 the trader Glotov discovered the Lisi Islands. In 1760 the trader Tolstykh discovered th'- 

 Androanovsk islands, called after his Christian name, and others belonging to the Aleutian 

 anil Kuril groups. 



On close examination of the matter it proved that the main mass of fur seals came out 

 on the Pribylovs Islands. Not so very long ago there appeared upon tbem annually five million 

 seals, while the number on the Commander Islands was not more than two millions. Judging 

 however from the latest information these figures must be considerably diminished especially 

 for the Pribylov Islands, for the animals scared by the piratical traders have of late year- 

 begun to appear more frequently upon the shore of the Kamchatka peninsula, upon the north- 

 eastern shore of Siberia and the north-western shore of North America, and apparently the 

 animal is becoming more marine, rarely coming out on land. Again the seals are already 

 appearing in diminished numbers upon Tiuleu Island near Sakhalin, about 10,000 only, upon 

 the Kuril Islands forming part of Japan, at the Cape of Corinth in the Argentine Republic, 

 at the Cape of Good Hope, upon the Falkland Islands, in Tasmania and many other places 

 of the southern hemisphere, where it would seem the animal in question in former times was 

 met with in countless numbers. Thus it resulted that not far back, only twenty-five years 

 ago, Russia was the only country in whose territories the highly valuable seal industry was 

 carried on. But since 1867, when the Russian possessions in North America, together with 

 some islands from the Aleutian archipelago, were ceded to the Government of the United 

 States, the advantages of this trade are shared with the latter country. 



In order to explain the economical importance of the seal industry to the State and 

 to define its dimensions, it is necessary to say something on the life of the animal itself and 

 the value of its fur. 



Of the favourite haunts of the seal in the Behring and Okhotsk seas, the Pribylov Islands, 

 St. George and St. Paul; are now the property of the United States, and the Commander 

 Islands, Behring and Miedny, and Tiulen are within the limits of the Russian dominions. 

 The Commander Islands, lying at a distance apart of 30 miles, and 100 miles from the 

 nearest point of the continent of Kamchatka, are deprived of all vegetation, covered with 

 rocky mountains and in part with marshy tundras. The damp sea air yielding abundant 



