250 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



was made, on several grounds, by two classes, one of which argued 

 against a " monopoly," the other urging that the Government itself 

 would realize more by taking the whole management of the busi- 

 ness into its own hands. At that time far away from Washington, 

 in the Rocky Mountains, I do not know what arguments were used 

 in the committee-rooms, or who made them ; but, since my careful 

 and prolonged study of the subject on the ground itself, and of the 

 trade and its conditions, I am now satisfied that the act of June, 

 1870, directing the Secretary of the Treasury to lease the seal- 

 islands of Alaska to the highest bidder, under the existing condi- 

 tions and qualifications, did the best and the only correct and 

 profitable thing that could have been done in the matter, both with 

 regard to the preservation of the seal-life in its original integrity, 

 and the pecuniary advantage of the treasury itself. To make this 

 statement perfectly clear, the following facts, by way of illustration, 

 should be presented : 



First. When the Government took possession of these interests 

 in 1868 and 1869, the gross value of a seal-skin laid down in the 

 best market, at London, was less in some instances and in others 

 but slightly above the present tax and royalty paid upon it by the 

 Alaska Commercial Company. 



Second. Through the action of the intelligent business-men 

 who took the contract from the Government in stimulating and en- 

 couraging the dressers of the raw material, and in taking sedulous 



thousand seals, at forty cents a skin, $10,000. They made the following 



subdivision : 



Per share. 



17 shares each, 961 skins $384 40 



2 shares each, 935 skins 374 00 



3 shares each, 821 skins 328 40 



1 share each, 820 skins 328 00 



3 shares each, 770 skins 308 00 



3 shares each, 400 skins 160 00 



These twenty-nine shares referred to, as stated above, represent only twenty- 

 five able-bodied men ; two of them were women. This method of division as 

 above given is the result of their own choice. It is an impossible thing for the 

 company to decide their relative merits as workmen on the ground, so they 

 have wisely turned its entire discussion over to them. Whatever they do they 

 must agree to whatever the company might do they possibly and probably 

 would never clearly understand, and hence dissatisfaction and suspicion would 

 inevitably arise. As it is, the whole subject is most satisfactorily settled. 



