12 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



follow a northerly course along the American coast. No 

 landing is made until the following May or June, when, in 

 obedience to their instincts, they once more return to their 

 common rendezvous on the Pribyloff Islands. The life habits 

 of the seals of the Asiatic herds are in all respects identical, 

 their winter migrations being south along the Asiatic coast 

 to the neighborhood of Japan. 



Under the organized sealing industry of the chartered 

 American Company, a fixed number of " bachelors " only were 

 killed, the female seals being left unmolested along with 

 old males, the pelts of the latter being quite useless for com- 

 mercial purposes. 



Shortly after the discovery of the Pribyloff Islands in 

 1786, the number of fur-seals annually captured at the 

 rookeries has been variously estimated among the millions. 

 The unlimited slaughter of the seals and the consequent 

 danger of their extinction obliged the Russian Government 

 to enact prohibitory laws from time to time for their protec- 

 tion. At the time of the American acquisition of Alaska, the 

 Russian-American Company (chartered by Russia and which 

 enjoyed the monopoly of the Alaskan trade) was shipping 

 annually to New York and London upon an average forty 

 thousand skins. Notwithstanding this seemingly large yearly 

 capture, seals were vastly increasing in numbers. 



In 186869 attention at Washington was especially directed 

 to the great value of the sealing industry, and also to the 

 wisdom of taking active measures to prevent a wholesale 

 slaughter of seals by rival companies that quickly occupied 

 the field when the Russian company went out of existence. 

 Unmindful of the future and eager for immediate gain, these 

 irresponsible hunters sought to kill the goose for her golden 

 eggs. Accordingly the islands of the Pribyloff group were 

 declared to be a governmental reserve, and by virtue of an Act 

 of Congress, July 1, 1870, the killing of "any fur-seal upon 

 the islands of St. Paul and St. George or in the waters adja- 

 cent thereto, excepting during the months of June, July, 

 September, and October in each year " was prohibited. It was 

 also declared unlawful to kill such seals at any time by the 



