THE FUK SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 373 



the sea-elephant or sea-lion, and it makes the process of refining it very difficult. They said it 

 was almost impossible to properly deodorize it and leave the slightest margin of profit for the 

 manufacturer and the dealer. It was gummy and far darker in color than any other seal oil, hence 

 it possessed little or no commercial value. Then, again, when the subject of taking oil from the 

 seal islands of Alaska is considered, the following obstacles, in addition to the first great objection 

 just cited, arise at once to financial success : The time, trouble, and danger in loading a vessel 

 with oil at the islands where, on account of the absence of a harbor and the frequent succession 

 of violent gales, a ship is compelled to anchor from 1 to 3 miles from the coast, on which the surf 

 is always breaking. The costs, again, of casks and cooperage will amount to 10 cents per gallon ; 

 the cost of the natives' work in securing and bringing the blubber to the try-works, 10 cents per 

 gallon; the cost of refining it, 10 cents; and the cost of transportation of a cargo of, say, 60,000 

 gallons will amount to nearly 20 cents per gallon; thus making a gallon of fur-seal oil aggregate 

 in cost to the taker 50 cents, which entails upon him nothing but pecuniary loss when the cargo 

 goes upon the market, and where it is worth only from 40 to 50 cents retail, with a dull sale at that.* 

 FRAGILE CHARACTER OF FUR-SEAL BONKS. I looked at the fur-seal bones, and at first sight 

 it seemed as though a bone factory might be established there ; but a little examination of the 

 singularly light and porous osseous structure of the CallorMnus quickly stifled that enterprise. 

 The skull and larger bones of the skeleton are more like pasteboard than the bone which is so 

 common to our minds. When dried out, the entire skeleton of a three-year-old male will not weigh 

 7 pounds ; indeed, I ain inclined to think it would be much less than that if thoroughly kiln-dried, 

 as after the fashion of the bone-mills. Therefore, although one hundred thousand of these skeletons 

 bleach out and are trodden down annually, upon the Pribylov Islands, yet they have not the 

 standing for any commercial value whatsoever, considering their distance and difficulty of access 

 from those impoverished fields where they might serve our farmers as fertilizing elements. The 

 bones of Callorhinus, though apparently strong, are surprisingly light and porous ; indeed, they 

 resemble those of Aves more than those commonly credited to mammalia ; the osseous structure, 

 however, of Phoca vitulina, the hair-seal which I examined there, side by side with that of the fur- 

 seal, was very much more solid and weighed, bone for bone of equal age, just about one-third 

 more, the skull especially ; also the shoulder-blades and the pelvic series. If the bones of the 

 animals were not divested of their cartilaginous continuations and connections, then the aggregate 

 weight of the fur-seal is equal to its hairy-skinned relative ; the entire skeleton of a three-year old $ 

 CallorMnus, completely divested by sea-fleas (Amphipoda) of all flesh and fat, but with every 

 ligameutary union and articulation perfect (the cartilaginous toe-ends all present), was just 8 

 pounds, and I have reason to believe that when it became air-dried and bleached it did not weigh 

 more than 4 or 5. The bones of the older seals are relatively very much heavier, but only rela- 

 tively ; the frailness and fragility is constant through life, though the skulls of the old males do 

 thicken up on their crests and about the rami of their jaws very perceptibly. 



* In 1873, not having had any experience and not even knowing the views of the oil dealers themselves, I left the 

 seal islands believing that if the special tax which was then laid upon each gallon of oil as it might be rendered was 

 removed, that it would pay the manufacturer, and in this way employ the natives, many days of the year otherwise 

 idle, profitably. The company assured me that as far as its conduct in the matter was concerned, it would be per- 

 fectly willing to employ the natives in rendering fur-seal oil, and give them all the profit, not desiring itself to coin 

 a single penny out of the whole transaction ; possibly this could be done if the special tax of 55 cents per gallon was 

 stricken off. The matter was then nrged upon the Treasury Department, by myself, in October, 1873, and the tax 

 was repealed by the Department soon after. But it seems that I was entirely mistaken as to the quality and value of 

 the oil itself. I made, to satisfy myself, a very careful investigation of the subject in 1876, going personally to the 

 leading dealers in whale and seal oil of New York City, and they were unanimous in their opposition to handling fur- 

 seal oil, some of them saying that they would not touch it at any price. I felt considerably chagrined, because had 

 I known as much in 1873, I would have saved myself then, and my friends subsequently, a good deal of unnecessary 

 trouble and profitless action. 



