2 HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 



companies on the Alaskan waters alcne. The consolidation 

 of these companies into one great corporation put an end 

 to the sanguinary quarrels amongst the rival traders, and 

 perhaps lessened somewhat the cruel persecution of the 

 unhappy natives who frequently sought redress for their 

 wrongs in wholesale massacre. By the appointment of a 

 resident governor, invested with almost absolute powers 

 and backed by a military force, the introduction of order 

 into a hitherto lawless and utterly irresponsible community 

 may have been beneficial to the traders and natives, but 

 the object of their pursuit gained no protection in the 

 way of regulation or system in the times and methods of 

 hunting. 



Heedless of the inevitable consequences of such a 

 short-sighted policy, already so clearly demonstrated in 

 Kamschatka, and regardless of the palpable diminution in 

 the number of furs obtained, the early hunters contemplated 

 with unconcern the practical extirpation of the source of 

 their wealth, which became simply a matter of time. At 

 length the Company was bankrupt alike in resources 

 and credit, its footsteps being dogged with the results of 

 ignorance and neglect; and the termination of its charter in 

 1864 was taken advantage of by the Russian Government 

 to put an end both to the Company and the Colony. 

 Finally, in the year following, for the sum of $7,200,000, 

 the whole of the Alaskan territory was formally transferred 

 to the United States. 



In order to form some idea of the enormous numbers of 

 sea otters which during the early years of discovery existed 

 on these coasts, it may be mentioned that two sailors, 

 Lukannow and Karekov, killed at St. Paul's Island, in the 

 first year of occupation, five thousand, the next year less than 

 one thousand, and six years afterwards not a single otter 

 was seen; and none have appeared since. When Skellikov's 

 party first visited Cook's Inlet they secured three thousand, 

 during the second year two thousand, in the third, only eight 

 hundred ; even this diminished number fell the next season 



