THE FUE-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 381 



and despotic sway over all British North America in 1821 ; it, too, has declined to a commercial 

 cipher to day, with its autocratic rights abolished long since ; in 1857, 1 think, they were wholly 

 rescinded. 



FIEST EXEMPTION OF FEMALES IN DRIVING. In the details of an old letter from the Eus- 

 sian agent of the Kussiau-American Company, on Saint 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 Kazeau Shiesneekov, Saint Paul Island, 1847.] 



5,607 " holluschiekov " (youug males). 



1,890 "bairieo" (4 and 5 year-old males), or a total of 7,497. 



This is interesting because il is the record of the first killing on the seal-islands when the 

 females were entirely exempted from slaughter. 



THE SEAL-ISLANDS WERE THE EXCHEQUER OF THE BUSSIAN-AMERICAN COMPANY : 1799- 



1825. "The Eussiaus in their colonial possession under Baranov, made, first, the seal-skin the- 

 basis of all transactions with foreigners by buying up whole cargoes of goods and provisions 

 brought into this country by English and American traders, and paying for the same in this way. 

 In other words, the seal-islands were the exchequer where the Bussiau authorities could with 

 certainty turn and lay their hands upon the necessary currency. These American, English, and 

 other foreign sea captains having disposed of their supplies at Sitka or Kadiak in this manner, 

 took their fur seal skins to China and disposed of them at a handsome advance for tea, rice, &c.. 

 in exchange. The profits made by these foreigners having reached the ears of the Eussian home 

 management of the fur company controlling Alaska, it was ordered then that payments in fur-seal 

 skins for these foreign supplies should cease, and that the Eussians themselves would ship tbeir 

 skins to China and enjoy the emolument thereof. The result of this action was that the Chinese 

 market did not prove as valuable to them as it was to the foreigners ; it became overstocked, and 

 a general stagnation and depression of the seal business took place and continued until a change 

 of base in this respect was again made, and the skins of the fur-seal were shipped, together with 

 the beaver, in bulk to the great Chinese depot of Kiakhta, where the Eussians exchanged these 

 peltries for the desired supplies of tea ; the trade thereof assuming such immense proportions 

 that the record is made where in a single year the Eussiau Fur Company paid to their Government 

 the enormous duty upon importations of tea alone of 2,000,000 silver rubles, or $1,500,000. This 

 was the period in the history of the seal-islands when, for a second time, and within the writing 

 of Veiiiainiuov, the seal life thereon was well nigh exterminated. The first decimation of these 

 interests took place in the last decade of the eighteenth century and shortly after the discovery 

 of the islands, when, it is stated, two million skins of these animals were rotting on the ground at 

 one time. Eezauov applied the correction very promptly in the first instance of threatened exter 

 miuation of these valuable interests, and when the second epoch of decimation occurred, in 1834 

 to 1836, Baron Wrangoll, admirably seconded by Father Veniaminov, checked its consumption. 

 These are instances of care and far-sightedness which are refreshing to contemplate."* 



12. THE ALASKA COMMEECIAL COMPANY. 



OCCUPATION OF THE ISLANDS BY AMERICANS IN 1868. The Alaska Commercial Company 

 deserves and will receive a brief but comprehensive notice at this point. In order that we may 

 follow ifc to these islands, and clearly and correctly appreciate the circumstances which gave it 

 footing and finally control of the business, I will pass back and review the chain of evidence 

 adduced in this direction from the time of our first occupation, in 1867, of the Territory of Alaska. 

 *lVAl PliTKOV: Uept. oil Pop. and Resources of Alaska, Ex. Doc. No. 40, 46th Coug., 3d stesM., 1881. 



