104 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



who molests, disturbs, or interferes with the lessees, or either of them, or their 

 agents, or employees, in the lawful prosecution of their business, under the provi- 

 sions of this chapter, shall for each offence be punished as prescribed in section nine- 

 teen hundred and sixty one, and all vessels, their tackle, apparel, appurtenances, 

 and cargo, whose crews are found engaged in any violation of the provisions of sec- 

 tion nineteen hundred and sixty-live to nineteen hundred and sixty -eight, inclusive, 

 shall be forfeited to the United States. 



SEC. 1968. If any person or company, under any lease herein authori/ed, know- 

 ingly kills, or permits to be killed, any number of seals exceeding the number for 

 each island in this chapter prescribed, such person or company shall, in addition to 

 the penalties and forfeitures herein provided, forfeit the whole number of the skins 

 of seals killed in that year, or, in case the same have been disposed of, then such 

 person or company shall forfeit the value of the same. 



Thus for a quarter of a century did tbe United States throw every 

 possible safeguard of law around the seals and other fur-bearing ani- 

 mals of Alaska, which, under the fostering care of the Government, 

 and the good management of the lessees on the seal islands, produced 

 the grand results of "growth and expansion" in the herd and on the 

 rookeries, sworn to by so many disinterested witnesses who have had 

 ocular knowledge of every fact to which they testified, while during 

 the same period of time the sea otter, which, owing to its pelagic habits, 

 was necessarily left to the tender mercies of the pelagic hunter, who 

 knows no law higher or holier than avarice and selfishness, has been 

 practically exterminated. Laws were enacted from time to time as 

 occasion required them; regulations in accordance with law were made 

 annually for the proper enforcement of the statutes and for the better- 

 ment of the natives of the seal islands and the industry upon which 

 they depended for a livelihood, and on which millions of civilized people 

 depended for one of the most beautiful, valuable, and useful furs known 

 to commerce. 



Who else, among the thousands now claiming an interest in the seals, 

 ever offered to protect them as we have done ? 



Where was the pelagic sealer in the days gone by, when the United 

 States were spending millions of money to protect the seal islands, and 

 when our statutes of protection to the female seal were being enacted t 

 Echo answers, u Where?" 



Immediately after the treaty of cession, and before we could bring 

 order out of chaos, the marauder of those days landed on the seal 

 islands and slaughtered seals indiscriminately, killing a quarter of a 

 million in one season, and only stopping the ruinous work when the 

 salt was exhausted. 



Afterwards the United States statutes were enforced by Government 

 agents sent to the islands for the purpose, and, until 3884, the seals 

 increased in numbers and in value under the fostering care of the 

 Government. 



For a period of thirteen years, from 1.871 to 18S4, inclusive, we had 

 taken 100,000 male seals annually without a sign of decrease or diminu- 

 tion on the rookeries or the slightest injury to the herd, but, on the 

 contrary, a well-known and generally acknowledged growth and expan- 

 sion. 



Dr. H. H. Mclntyre, general superintendent for the Alaska Commer- 

 cial Company at the seal islands during the entire term of their twenty 

 years lease, when writing confidentially to his company in 1889, says: 



The breeding rookeries from the beginning of the lease to 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 Treas- 

 ury agent, J. M. Morton, who was on the islands from 1870 to 1880. (See letter in 

 Appendix.) 



