THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 105 







by Mr. Elliott and myself, and a map of each rookery on both islands drawn from careful surveys made by Mr. 

 Elliott in 1872, show them now as they were in the season of 1874 as compared with that of 1872. I respectfully 

 recommend that enlarged copies of these latter maps be furnished to the government agents in charge of the 

 islands, and that they be required to compare them each year with the respective rookeries, and note what change 

 in size and form, if any, exists upon them. This, if carefully done, will afford data, after a time, by which the 

 seal fisheries can be regulated with comparative certainty, so as to produce the greatest revenue to the government, 

 without injury to this valuable interest. 



NUMBER OF SEALS KILLED. Since 1870 there have been killed, on both islands, 112,000 young male seals each 

 year. Whether this slaughter has prevented the seals from increasing in numbers or not, and, if so, to what 

 extent, can only be deduced from their past history, which unfortunately is very imperfectly given. In 1836 to 

 1839 there were fewer seals upon the islands than had ever been seen before since their first discovery in 1786. On 

 St. Paul island, then, there were not more than twelve or fifteen thousand of all kinds. The killing of them was 

 then stopped, and not resumed until 1845, when it was done gradually, and, as had never been the case before, 

 only the young males were killed. The rookeries continued to increase in size until 1857, since which time they 

 have remained in about the same aggregate, although a less number of bachelor seals were killed yearly between 

 1857 and 1868 than have been slaughtered since. 



THOUGHTS ON THEIR INCREASE AND DIMINUTION FOR THE FUTURE. This would seem to show that there 

 is a limit beyond which they will not increase, and that this limit, a natural one, has been reached. If they could 

 be under our control and protection at all times, and if a sufficient supply of food for them could be procured, we 

 "would doubtless be able to cause them to multiply, for there are more of both sexes born each year than are 

 necessary to meet the losses from the natural" causes of death, such as old age, diseases, and accidents, and, in 

 reality, we do not even know where they are and what they are about for seven months in each year, while we do 

 know that they have deadly enemies, which make sad havoc, particularly among the pups and yearlings, inas- 

 much as a single killer-whale has been found to have as many as 16 young seals in its stomach, when destroyed 

 and opened for examination. 



THE EXTENT OF HUMAN PROTECTION. Our protection of them can only be partial; that is to say, we can 

 limit the number to be killed when they are within our reach, and prevent their being dispersed on the 

 breeding rookeries, or driven from the islands. On the other hand, the question raised is, whether the 

 killing of the number above mentioned has had, or has not had. the effect of decreasing the aggregate number 

 of seals. Judging from the comparison between the maps of the rookeries as they were in 1872, and the 

 condition of the rookeries themselves as surveyed, and from the testimony of the best informed men on the island, 

 both whites and natives, I think it has not as yet. Since the young males alone are killed, injury would be 

 efl'ected through this action, if it did not allow a sufficient number to reach that maturity necessary for the 

 satisfaction of all demands of the breeding females on the rookeries. The young males do not grow strong enough to 

 reach the rookeries until they are at least six years old; hence, the effect of the first year's kill-ng cannot be seen in that 

 connection until the pups have attained this age. For that reason it seems to me that it is now a little too soon to 

 decide whether we are killing too many or not, since the present conduct of affairs has now been only four years in 

 opevation. It is possible, however, that more, even twice as many as are now killed annually, might be taken every 

 year without injury, but it would be making a severe and most hazardous experiment before any definite result 

 has been obtained from the first, which is now in operation. The number now killed annually is entirely 

 experimental, because wo have nothing to start from in the past as a basis of estimation for the future until the 

 effect produced is satisfactorily shown. I would, therefore, not recommend an extension of the contract as to the 

 number of seals to be killed until within seven or eight years from the date of the one now existing went into 

 effect, when, if the rookeries have not decreased in si/e, it can then safely be done. 



THE LEASE OF THE ISLANDS. In June, 1870, Congress passed an act entitled " An Act to prevent the 

 extermination of the fur-bearing animals in Alaska", which authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to lease to 

 private parties for a term of years the right to engage in the business of taking fur-seals on the islands of St. 

 Paul and St. George, under certain specified conditions and restrictions. Therefore, the subject was publicly 

 advertised, and bids solicited, the privilege to be awarded to the highest responsible bidder. A number of 

 individuals doing- business in San Francisco under the firm-name of the "Alaska Commercial Company" were the 

 successful bidders, and the right was granted to them under the terms of the lease now in force (a copy of which 

 is here annexed) for a period of twenty years, from the 1st day of May, 1870. The terms were not arranged and 

 the lease delivered until the 31st day of August, 1870, and the vessels and agents of the company did not reach 

 the islands until the 1st of October. The season allowed by law for killing seals being nearly over, but few skins, 

 consequently, were taken by the company that year (3,448 on St. Paul, and 5,789 on St. George island). But 

 the following and each succeeding year they have taken nearly the full number. 



"\Yhen the lease was made it was erroneously supposed that there were about one-third as many seals on St. 

 George island as there were on St. Paul, and, in consequence of this understanding, the number to be taken from 

 each island was fixed at 25,000 and 75,000 respectively. In reality there are only about one-eighteenth as many 

 on the former as on the latter, which fact having been clearly shown by Mr. Elliott, the power was given to the 



