22 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



over the hauling and breeding grounds of these remarkable islands, I 

 have been thrown entirely upon the vague statements given to me by 

 the natives, and one or two of the first American sealers on the islands. 

 The only Eussian record which touches ever so lightly upon the sub- 

 ject ' contains the remarkable statement, which is, in the light of my 

 surveys, simply ridiculous now — that is, that the number of fur seals on 

 St. George during the first years of Russian occui)ation was nearly as 

 great as that on St. Paul. The most vsuperficial examination of the physi- 

 cal character of the coasts portrayed on the accompanying maps of those 

 islands, will satisfy any unprejudiced mind as to the total error of such 

 a statement. Why, a mere tithe only of the multitudes which repair 

 to St. Paul in perfect comfort over the 16 to 20 miles of s])lendid land- 

 ing ground found thereon, could visit St. George, when all of the coast 

 line fit for their reception at this island is a scant 2^ miles; but for 

 that matter, there was, at the time of my arrival and in the beginning 

 of my investigation, a score of equally wild and incredible legends 

 afloat in regard to the rookeries on St. Paul and St. George. Finding, 

 therefore, that the whole work nnist be undertaken de novo^ I set about 

 it without further delay. 



''Thus it will be seen that there is, frankly stated, nothing to guide 

 us to a fair or even approximate estimate as to the number of the fur 

 seals on these two islands prior to my labor. 



MANNER OF COMPUTING THE NUMBER OF SEALS. 



"After a careful study of the subject during three entire consecutive 

 seasons, and a confirmatory review of it in 1870, I feel confident that 

 the following figures and surveys will, upon their own face, si)eak 

 authoritatively as to their truthful character. 



"At the close of my investigation, during the first season of my labor 

 on the grounds, in 1872, the fact became evident tliat the breeding seals 

 obeyed implicitly an imperative and instinctive natural law of distri- 

 bution — a law recognized by each and every fur seal upon the rookeries, 

 prompted by a fine consciousness of necessity for its own well-being. 

 The breeding grounds occupied by them were, therefore, invariably 

 covered by the seals in exact ratio, greater or less, as the area upon 

 which they rested was larger or smaller. They always covered the 



' Veniaminov: Zapieskie ob Oonalashkenskaho Otdayla, 2 vols., St. Petersburg, 

 1842. This work of Bishop Innocent Veniaminov is the only one which the Rus- 

 sians can lay claim to as exhibitintf anything;' like a history of western Alaska, or of 

 givlngt a sketch of its inhabitants and resources that has the least merit of truth or 

 the faintest stamp of reliability. Without it we should be sini])ly in the dark as to 

 much of what the Russians were about durinti: the whole period of their occupation 

 and possession of that country. He served, chiefly as a priest and missionary, for 

 twenty-tive years, from 1814 to 1839, at Unalaska, having the seal islands in hia 

 parish, and was madebisliopof all Alaslva. lie was soon after recalled to Russia, where 

 he became the primate of the national church, ranking second to no man in the 

 Empire, save the Czar. He must have been a man of line personal appearance, judg- 

 ing from the following description of him, noted by Sir (leorge Simpson, who met 

 him at Sitka in 1842, just as he was about to embark for Russia: "His ajjpearance, 

 to which I have already alluded, impresses a stranger with something of awe, while 

 in further intt^rconrse, the gentleness which characterizes his every word and deed 

 insensibly molds reverence into love; and, at the same time, his talents and attain- 

 ments are such as to be worthy of his exalted station. With all this, the bishop is 

 sufficiently a man of the world to disdain anything like cant. His conversation, on 

 the contrary, teems with amusement and instruction, and his company is much 

 prized by all who have the honor of his acquaintance." Such is the portrait drawn 

 of him by a governor of the Hudson Bay Company. At the advanced age of 93 

 years this much beloved and esteemed prelate died, in Moscow, April 22, 1879. 



