58 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLAN 7 DS. 



islands without regard to age, sex, or condition until 1834, when the 

 question of total extermination stared them in the face. 

 Veniaminov tells us: 



From the time of the discovery of the Pribilof Islands up to 1805 the taking of fur 

 seals progressed without count or lists, and without responsible heads or chiefs, 

 .because then (1787 to 1805, inclusive) there were a number of companies, represented 

 by as many agents or leaders, and all of them vied with each other in taking as many 

 as they could before the killing was stopped. After this, in 1806 and 1807, there 

 were no seals taken, and nearly all the people were removed to Unalaska. 



In 1808 the killing was ;igain commenced, but the people in this year were allowed 

 to kill only on St. (George. On St. Paul hunters were not permitted this year or the 

 next. 



It was not until the fourth year after this that as many as half the number pre- 

 viously taken were annually killed. 



From this time (St. George 1808 and St. Paul 1810) up to 1822, taking fur seals pro- 

 gressed on both islands without economy and with slight circumspection as if there 

 were a race in killing for the most skins. Cows were taken in drives and killed, and 

 were also driven from the rookeries to places where they were slaughtered. (Elliott's 

 translation.) 



AndMr. Elliott, commenting on Veniaminov's zapieska. tells us that 



A study of this killing throughout the zapooska of 1834 on St. Paul Island shows 

 that for a period of sevr n years, from 1835 down to the close of the season of 1841, no 

 seals practically were killed save those that were needed for food and clothing by the 

 natives, and that in 1835 for the first time in the history of this industry on these 

 islands, was the vital principle of not killing female seals recognized. It will be 

 noticed that- the entry for each and every year distinctly specifies so many bachelor 

 seals or holluschickovkotovie. 



The sealing in those days was carried on all through the summer until the seals 

 left in October or November, on account of the tedious method then in vogue of air 

 drying the skins. This caused them in driving after the breaking up of the breeding 

 season by the end of July, to take up at first hundreds, and thousands later on, of the 

 females, but they never spared those cows then when they arrived in the droves on 

 the killing grounds, prior to this date above quoted, of 1835. (Elliott's report, 1890. > 



Ignoring for the moment all that has been said about the thought- 

 lessness and brutality of the Russian methods of driving and killing 

 seals, and of the incalculable waste arising therefrom, which resulted in 

 the almost total destruction of the species on two occasions, it is never- 

 theless true that after many years of bitter experience they did learn to 

 do better; and when they turned the property over to the United States 

 in 18G8 there were nearly 5,000,000 l of seals on the Pribilof Islands, 

 and that for a period of sixteen years afterwards there was neither 

 decrease nor diminution perceptible in those immense and valuable herds. 



Dr. H. II. Mclntyre, who was the general superintendent for the 

 Alaska Commercial Company during the whole time of their twenty- 

 year lease of the seal islands, writing, confidentially, to his employers in 

 1889, says: 



The breeding rookeries from the beginning of the lease till 1882 or 1883 were, I 

 believe, constantly increasing in area and population, and my observations in this 

 direction are in accordance with those of Mr. Morgan, Mr. Webster, and others, who 

 have been for many years with me in your service, and of the late special Treasury 

 agent, J. M. Morton, who was on the islands from 1870 to 1880. (See H. H. Mclntyre 

 to Alaska Commercial Company, July 16, 1889, Appendix.) 



And Mr. Henry W. Elliott, writing in 1881, fully corroborates the 

 foregoing when he tells us 



There Trere no more seals seen here by human eyes in 1786 and 1787 than there are 

 now in 1881, as far as all evidence goes. (Elliott's Seal Islands of Alaska, p. 66.) 



1 Grand sum total for the Pribilof Islands (season of 1873), breeding seals and 

 young, 3,193,420. The noubreeding seals seem nearly equal in number to that of the 

 adult breeding seals; but, without putting them down at a figure quite so high, I 

 may safely say that the sum total of 1,500,000, in round numbers, is a fair enumera- 

 tion, and quite within bounds of fact. This makes the grand sum total of the fur- 

 seal life on the Pribilof Islands over 4,700,000. (Elliott, The Fur-Seal Islands of 

 Alaska, pp. 61, 62.) 



