44 ALASKA. 



the benefit of those animals and of the trade with the natives 

 wh^ were engaged in gathering them that constituted the main 

 object of the original enterprises prosecuted by Russian naviga- 

 tors. They had at a very early period discovered what we call 

 the Commander Islands on the western side of the Bering Sea, 

 which were then, as they are now, one of the principal resorts 

 and breeding places of the fur seals. They were carrying on a 

 very large, or a considerable, industry in connection with those 

 animals upon those islands. 



Prior to the year 1787, one of their navigators, Captain Pribilof, 

 had observed very numerous bodies of fur seals making their way 

 northward through the passes of the Aleutian chain. Whither 

 they were going he knew not, but, from his knowledge of the habits 

 of the seals in the region of the Commander Islands, he could not 

 but suppose that there was, somewhere north of the Aleutian chain 

 in the Bering Sea, another great breeding place and resort for these 

 animals. He therefore expended much labor in endeavoring to 

 discover these resorts, and in the year 1786, I think, on one of his 

 voyages, he suddenly found himself in the presence of that tre- 

 mendous roar — a roar almost like that of Niagara, it is said — 

 which proceeds from the countless multitudes of animals upon the 

 islands. He knew then that the object for which he was seeking 

 had been obtained; and waiting until the fog had lifted, he dis- 

 covered before him the islands to which his name was afterwards 

 given. That was in 1786. Immediately following that discov- 

 ery many Russians, sometimes individually and sometimes asso- 

 ciated in companies, resorted to those islands, which were uninhab- 

 ited, and made large captures of seals from them. The mode 

 of taking them was by an indiscriminate slaughter of males and 

 females; and of course, it was not long before the disastrous 

 effects of that method became apparent. They were greatly 

 reduced in numbers, and at one or more times, seemed to be upon 

 the point almost of commercial extermination. By degrees. 



