TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

 PART I. 



Chapter I. — Introduction : p 



The occasion of the iuinnry 17 



The a.<t of Congress j7 



The commission 17 



The scope of the work lj< 



The investigations jg 



The report I9 



Itinerary, 1896 20 



Itinerary, 1?<97 21 



Chapter II.— Historical Skeivh: 



Discovery ami exploration 23 



Uering's second voyage 23 



Discovery of Commander and Pribilof island.s 23 



The Russian-American Comjiany 23 



Its organization 24 



The nkase of 1821 . 24 



The second and third charters 24 



The company's management 25 



luj nrions methods 25 



Protection of female.s 25 



The herd at the close of Russian control 26 



The interregnum 26 



Professor Dall's notes 26 



The number of seals killed 26 



Mr. Howes's notes 26 



The trading companies 26 



The work of sealing 27 



Methods of driving 27 



Russian methods 27 



The killing not indiscriminate 28 



American management • 28 



The Alaska Commercial Company 28 



The tirst lease 29 



The North American Commercial Com pany 29 



The present lease 29 



The decline in the bachelor herd 29 



Land and sea killing 29 



The extension of sealing to Bering Sea 30 



The Tribunal of Arbitration 30 



The effect of the Regulations .30 



Chaptkr III. — I'liK Home of the Fur Seals: 



A. The Pribilof Islands 31 



Their geography 31 



St. Paul Island 31 



St. George Island 31 



Otfer Island 32 



Walrus Island 32 



5 



