238 SEAL LIFE ON THE PiifBILOF ISLANDS. 



from year to year during the whole term of our lease. We were unre- 

 stricted as to the numbers to be taken, and after the first two years of 

 the lease were urged by the Russian authorities upon the islands to take 

 more than we wanted, in view of the condition of the seal-skin market. 

 I revisited the islands on various occasions subsequent to 1871, and my 

 observations confirmed the (act that we were moving in the right direc- 

 tion to secure an increase of the rookeries. The experience of the whole 

 term of the lease proves conclusively that our policy in conducting the 

 business was a wise one, and that our manner of handling, managing, 

 and killing the seals was in every respect what it should have been. 

 This policy was predicated upon the custom of the Russian- American 

 Company, observed during many years and strengthened by my own 

 actual experience in conducting the business of taking seals upon the 

 Pribilof Islands in 1807, 1808, and 1809, and more particularly during 

 the season of 1808, when there was unrestricted sealing done by various 

 parties regardless of the future of the rookeries. The pernicious effects 

 of the methods pursued by them were at once observed, and measures 

 immediately taken by me, aided by the natives, over whom 1 had com- 

 plete control, to correct their practices and bring them within reason- 

 able customs already proved efficacious in preserving the rookeries from 

 annihilation. (Gustave Niebaum.) 



If the right proportion is maintained between the sexes, the greatest 

 possible number of progeny is assured. As long as we were able to 

 keep exclusive control, undisturbed by outside influences, we main- 

 tained the steady increase of the herd and profitable returns from the 

 industry. When outside parties, beyond our jurisdiction, carried on 

 their destructive work to any considerable extent, the equilibrium of 

 the sexes was destroyed, any calculation of those in charge of the 

 islands was nullified or miscarried, and the speedy decrease and ulti- 

 mate destruction of the seals and sealing industry made certain. (H. H. 

 Mclntyre.) 



We protect and take good care of the seals, and if they were not 

 killed in the sea we could make them increase upon the islands so that 

 they would be as many as before. (A. Melovedoff.) 



We can care for and protect the mature seals as well as the cattle on 

 the ranges are cared for and protected, and if they could be guarded 

 from the hunters in the sea we could by good management again make 

 the rookeries as large as before. (S. Melovidov.) 



Naturally the cause of this diminution was a matter of interest and 

 inquiry. It was not evident that it was from causes incident to the 

 taking of the seals upon the island. The greatest care was exercised 

 in the driving. Urid^r precisely similar conditions the herd had increased 

 in former years. The number of skins originally apportioned to St. 

 George Island was reduced at an early date, and only increased in pro- 

 portion to the rookeries' expansion. No disturbance of the rookery was 

 permitted, even the presence of dogs and use of firearms being prohib- 

 ited during the presence of the seals. (T. F. Morgan.) 



The management of the rookeries the first fifteen years of the Alaska 

 Commercial Company's lease resulted in a large increase of seals. The 

 same business management continued and the same system was pur- 

 sued to the end of the term, yet in the last five years the rookeries fell 

 off. Clearly it was through no fault of the company, and resulted from 

 some cause beyond their control. I do not think the Alaska Commer- 

 cial Company made any mistakes in managing the seal herd. They 



