FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 133 



(2) For the first four years of zapooska, until the uew females begin to bear, their 

 number will geuerally be less. 



(3) A coustant num))er of seals will coutiuuo during the first six years of their 

 zapooska; in twelve, these seals will double; iu fourteen years they will have 

 increased threefold; and after fifteen yeM's of this zapooska, or saving of 7,060 in 

 the first vear. 24,000 may be taken from them; in the second, 28,000; in the third, 

 32.000; iii'thc fourth, 36,000; iu the fifth, 41,000. Thus in five years more than 160,000 

 can lie taken. Then, under the supervision of persons who will see that oue-fifth of 

 the seals be steadily spared, 32,000 maj' be taken every year for a long time. 



(4) .Moreover, from tlio production of fifteen years' zapoosl<a there can be taken 

 from 60,000 to 70,000 holhiscliickie, which, together with 160,000 seals, makes 230.000. 



(5) If this zapooska for the next fifteen years is not made for the seal's life, dimi- 

 nution will certainly ensue, and all this time, with all possible ett'ort, no more than 

 50,000 seals will be taken. 



Here it should be said that this hypothetical table of the probable increase of seals 

 is made on the supposition of the decrease of females, and an average is taken accord- 

 ingly. Furthermore, on the island of St. Paul, iu 1836-37, instead of 7,900 seals 

 being killed but 4,860 were taken. Hence it follows that these 1,500 females thus 

 saved in two years, and which are omitted from the table, will also make a very 

 significant addition to the incoming seals.' 



' The leader in following the calculations of the bishop, as exhibited by this table, 

 must not forget to bear in mind as he runs it over that it is arranged with a sliding 

 scale of increase that counts steadily down from 1840 to 1849, and also a sliding- 

 down scale of decrease by reason of natural death rates that works steadily across 

 these figures of increase just specified. 



I made this translation at Oonalashka, in the house of the Rev. Innokenty Shaish- 

 nekov, a son of that Shaieslinikov which the bishop qnotes on p. 131, Kiite. I took 

 great care to preserve tBe exact English e(iuivalent of the bishoji's Russian text, 

 and was aided very much by the Creole priest, who had that coj)y of X'euiaminov's 

 Zapiesla in his possession, which I used. 



" Deacon " Kazean Shaishnekov, the father of the Oonalashka priest, was the agent 

 in charge of this island of St. Panl for tlie old Russian company from 1828 or 1829 up 

 to 1854, when he died. He left a copious and carefully written diary, covering every- 

 thing that transpired daily on the seal islands during all that period. A stupid and 

 unworthy relative actuaUi/ took this precious MS. and had pasted it all over the doors, 

 the walls, and the ceiliufi of his house on the island in lSGO-1864, and I saw a few of the 

 smoke-stained sheets still sticking there in 1872. This is a species of vandalism that 

 beggars adequate description. — H. W. E. 



