FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



135 



From this table l)ehold that — 



(n) Every fifteen years from 3,600 females there can be received in sixteen years 

 21,700 .seals; in sixteen years still more, and in twenty years 41,640. 



(h) In the twenty-first year the incomes begin to diminish, provided that if in the 

 meantime, or the followinj;' sixteen years, a certain nnmber of yonnjj; seals arc not left 

 to breed; and if everv year a known number are left to breed, then in all following 

 years the yield will never be less than 20,000 every year. 



Tlie foregoing cliapter of Bishop Yeniamiiiov was written in 1837, and 

 closes his knowledge of tlie toi)ic with that year. The ''zapooska" 

 of 18:34, wliicli stopped all killing except a few food seals for the natives 

 in the seasons of 18o.")-lS40, ran on in the following manner for St. Paul 

 Island, until the restoriition of the rookeries in 1846-1850. This is the 

 only record extant, and I was fortunate in getting it. 



Vyoeezvodajitva Pooahuik Promissloo vie c droogieh, salt 1S35 goda zapooska. (List of 

 the kiU'ntg for furs and other purposes since the zapooska of 1835.Y 



' This li.st altove f] noted, is a record kept by the Rev. Kazean Shaishnikov, who lived on St. Paul 

 Island tlirouiihout the period covered by it. The autographic orifrinal was given to me to copy by 

 his son, Father Paul Shaislmikov, and Kerick Artamanov, who had it in their possession on the 2d of 

 July, 1890. Ko similar writing exi.sts for the same jjeriod on the island of St. George. 



Xow, with this list in hand, the following tablel of Bishop Yeniainiuov 

 becomes intelligible. Withont it, I have hitherto been nnable to recon- 

 cile liis statement tliat all killing was stopped in 1835, on the one hand, 

 and on the other, with the iignres which he gives below for 1835, and 

 np to the end of his record in 1837; but, on turning to Shaishnikov's 

 item for that year, we see that the bishop's total of ''4,052" as taken 

 that year on St. Paul really was only " 100 shins of bachelor fur seals " 

 and "o,.V5~^ .s7./»,S' of pups'''' — ^'■gray^'' pups, or o-month-olrVs, having by 

 that time shed their black natal coats and donned their gray over- 

 hair seagoing jackets. Thus we observe that the killing for market, 

 was liierally stopped. The pups were taken by the natives for footl 

 and clothing. 



Table I, part 2. — Bishop Veniaminov'a ZapieHka,etc., showing the seal catch during the 

 poriod of gradual diminution of life on the islands from 1817 down to 1837. 



