THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



165 



scant supply; then when the season closes they will gravely tell you that there never were so many seals on the 

 island before! I was greeted in this manner by the agents of the company and the government in 1872, again in 

 1873, and again in 1874. I did not get up to the grounds in 1876 soon enough to hear the usual spring croaking of 

 of disaster; but arrived, however, in time to hear the regular cry of "never was so many seals here before"! 



40. FINAL NOTES AND TABLES RELATIVE TO THE VALUE, PROTECTION, AND GROWTH OF 

 THE FUR SEAL; AND THE REVENUE DERIVED FROM THAT INDUSTRY ON THE 



PRIBYLOV ISLANDS. 



AN EXHIBIT OF VALUES GIVEN BY VENIAMINOV. Pt. i: Zapie&ie, etc., p. 83, showing the relative importance, 

 commercially, of the land and marine furs taken from the Oonalashka district (and sold) in 1833, by the Russian 

 American Company. (This district embraces the Pribylov islands.) 



The country (Alaska) is divided up into 5 districts : Sitka, Kadiak, Oonalashka, Atka, and the North. 



This whole country is under the control and government of the "Russian-American Company". * * * The 

 business is conducted with a head, or a colonial governor, assisted by officers of the Imperial navy (Russian), and 

 those of the company's fleet, and other chiefs ; in every one of the districts the company has an office, which is 

 under the direction of an office chief (or agent), and he in turn has foremen (or "bidarsheeks"). 



The company on the island of St. Paul killed from 60,000 to 80,000 fur-seals per annum, but in the last time 

 (1833!), with all possible care in getting them, they took only 12,000. On the island of St. George, instead of getting 

 40,000 or 35,000, only 1,300 were killed. * * * [Veniaminov: Zapitslcie, etc..pt. i: chap, xii, 1840.] 



The table and extracts which I quote above give me the only direct Russian testimony as to the value of the 

 Pribylov fur-seal catch when the skins were in scant supply. It will be seen that they were worth then just $10 each. 



I now append a brief but significant extract from Techmainov significant simply because it demonstrates that 

 all Russian testimony, other than Veniaminov's, is utterly self-contradictory in regard to the number of seals taken 

 from the Pribylov islands. Techmaiuov first gives a series of tables which he declares are a true transcript and exhibit 

 of the skins sold out of Alaska by the Russian -American Company. The latest table presented, and up to the date 

 of his writing, 1862, shows that 372,894 fur-seal skins were taken from the Pribylov islands, via Sitka, to the Russian 

 markets of the world, in the years 1842-1862, inclusive; or giving an average catch of 18,644 per annum, (p. 221.) 

 Then further on as he writes (nearly one hundred pages), he stultifies his record above quoted by using the language 

 and figures as follows: 



"In earlier times more were taken than in the later; at present (1862) there are taken from the island of St. 

 Paul 70; 000 annually without diminishing the number for future killing; on St. George, 6,000. * * * From 1842 

 to 1861 there were taken from the island of St. Paul 277,778 seal skins; blue foxes, 10,508; walrus teeth, 104 poods; 

 from St. George, 31,923 fur-seals ; blue foxes, 24,286." [P. Techmainov : Eestorecheskoi Obozerainia Obrazovania, 

 Russian-American Company; pt. ii, p. 310, 1863, St. Petersburg.] Further comment is unnecessary upon this author, 

 who thus writes a "history of the doings of the Russian-American Company". Still, since Veniaminov's time, 

 1838-'40, it is the only prima facie testimony that we have touching these subjects while under Russian domination. 



RUSSIAN GOVERNORS CONTROLLING THE PRIBYLOV ISLANDS. The following list gives the names of the 

 several autocratic governors of the Russian-American Company, who, in their order of mention, exercised absolute 

 control over the the Pribylov islands between 1799 and 1867, inclusive ;' 1, Baranov ; 2, Yahnovskie ; 3, Hooray vev ; 

 4, Chestyahkov; 5, Wrangell ; 6, Kooprianov ; 7, Etholine; 8, Tebenkov; 9, Rossenbnrg; 10, Viaviatskie; 11, 

 Foragelm; 12, Maxsutov. Of the above, with the exception of Baranov, who was a self-made man, and General 

 Viaviatskie, of the Russian army, all the others were admirals and captains in the Imperial navy of Russia. 



FIRST EXEMPTION OF FEMALES IN DRIVING. In the details of an old letter from a Creole agent of the 

 Russian-American Company, on St. Paul, in 1847, I find the following side reference to the number of skins which 

 were shipped from the Pribylov islands that season : [Ms. letter of Kazean Shiesneekov, St. Paul island, 1847.] 



5,606 "holluscliickov " (young males). 



1,894 "sairiee" (four and five year-old males), or a total of 7,497. 



