'The Days of a Man 



D897 



The Sea 

 Otter 



Much gold 

 but no 



A Treas- 

 ury order 



negligence on the part of our Government. When 

 we took possession of Alaska in 1867, the Sea Otter, 

 a unique and valuable animal, was still abundant. 

 In early Russian times it had swarmed everywhere 

 in the North, even ranging sparsely as far south as 

 Point Concepcion. Up to American occupation it 

 was taken mainly with spears by natives and only 

 in scant-venturing skin-boats, a method not im- 

 mediately ruinous. The Americans and Canadians, 

 however, used rifles from the decks of schooners, so 

 that very few animals escaped. 



At the time of our visit the species was practically 

 extinct about the Alaskan Peninsula * and the 

 Aleuts were virtually starving, their sole remaining 

 resource being fish, on which alone man cannot in- 

 definitely subsist. 



In strange contrast to this human wretchedness, 

 food tne Russian priest showed us a golden communion 

 service brought from Moscow in days of plenty. 

 This the natives dared not touch, nor could they 

 have found a market anywhere within reach. More- 

 over, there was nothing to buy, for when the Otter 

 failed, the Commercial Company which had fur- 

 nished staples necessarily abandoned its agencies. 

 Elsewhere along the coast conditions were said to be 

 even worse than at Belkofski. 



On my next trip to Washington I laid the matter 

 before Secretary Gage and, at his request, drew up 

 an order of the Treasury prohibiting the killing of 

 Sea Otter by means of firearms, or from any vessels 

 except canoes. Such a decree should have been 



1 Individuals were occasionally taken in out-of-the-way places in both 

 Alaska and Kamchatka. At Bering Island, later that summer, I was offered 

 a fresh skin for $1200. 



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