80 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The fur-seal attains the age of fifteen or twenty years, but not more. The females do not bring forth yonng till they are five years 

 old. The liuutors have frequently marked their ears each season, and many of the animals have been notched in this way ten times, but 

 very few of them ofteuer. 



Under the present system, the fur-seals are increasing rapidly in number. Previously to its introduction, the animal hunts had 

 dwindled down to three and four thousand. They have now gradually got up to thrice that amount, and they are likely soon to equal the 

 full demand, not exceeding thirty thousand skins, of the Russian governpient.* 



It is valuable, as showing that, as long ago as 1841-'42, under Eussian management, more than 30,000 skins 

 per annum would be a loss, and not profitable to take from the seal-islands. Also, that, though the tardy 

 recognition of the fact that females should not be slaughtered was made on the Pribylov islands shortly prior to 

 1841-'42, yet suitable regulations had not yet been made for the management of the business, inasmuch as all 

 classes, "as a whole," were driven to the killing-grounds. This harassed and disturbed the females quite as badly 

 as if killed outright. In 1845 the present order of implicit non-trespass upon the breeding-rookeries was first 

 established, and I am sorry that I cannot find the name of the intelligent Eussian who promulgated it, so that it 

 might be known and respected, as it so well deserves. 



No FUR-SEALS KNOAVN TO EARLY TRADE. — The homely, yet explicit, letters of William Beresford should be 

 noticed, for he sailed from London in 1797-'98, as a trader with Portlock and Dixon, and he gives, perhaps, the 

 only straightforward synopsis of the fur-trade of the northwest coast as it was then. He reviews the subject as it 

 I>resents itself to him from Cook's inlet to Cape Mendocino, in the sei'ies of field-notes which are printed and form 

 the body and soul of Bixon^s Voyage. 



Nowhere does the author mention the fur-seal in this narrative, covering as it does two years' cruising between 

 Kadiak and Cape Flattery. He evidently had not even heard of it, though at the time the Eussians were working 

 the Pribylov islands barbarously, taking hundreds of thousands of skins. 



When I first went to the northwest coast. May, 186.5, I learned from the venerable Doctor Tolmie, a recently 

 retired chief factor of the Vancouver (Hudson Bay Company's) district, a great deal of the fur-bearing animals of 

 that country, as known to the celebrated company which he had represented. I find no mention in my memoranda 

 made at the time, that he indicated the skin of the fur-seal as one of the long list of items of trade; and while I was 

 in that country between the Stikeen mou^h and Puget sound, 18C5-'07, inclusive, I never heard a single word of the 

 fur-seal, and I, myself, then never recognized its name. I do not think, therefore, it worth while to discuss the idle 

 rumors, now prevalent to some extent, as to the "fact" that the fur-seal is breeding in some lonely nook her&and 

 there along the coast. The Indians would have known it full well a hundred years ago, and such anxious seekers 

 after choice peltries as William Beresford and the Hudson Bay Company, would have profited accordingly. 



Pelagic fur-sealing a recent enterprise. — Fur-seals then, as now, were annually seen in all probability 

 by the natives of the coast at sea, between Prince of Wales island and the Columbia river; but, either they were 

 not deemed worthy of the labor in capture, or else the superior value of the seaotter chase drew every attention 

 of the pelagic hunters, just as it does to-day. At least I feel warranted in this conclusion, by the full and explicit 

 details whicli Alexander Mackenzie gives of the furs that he saw in the natives' possession when he came overland 

 from Montreal to the Pacific ocean in 1793. He describes the sea-otter almost exclusively. Be speaks, however, 

 of the natives having seal's flesh for sale; that it was eaten raw, "cut into chunks." Most likely this seal-meat of 

 Mackenzie's notice was that of Phoca vituUna, which animal I have seen myself, nearly 100 miles up the Fraser 

 river from tlie coast. However, it may havQ beeu that of the fur-seal, for he was among those savages who 

 inhabited the islands and coast of Queen Cliarlotte sound, where these animals are to-day often seen sleeping or 

 sporting in the broad reach of that open roadstead. 



14. ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE SKINS, OIL, AND FLESH OF THE FUE-SEAL. 



Eeason why pur-seal skins are all sold in London. — On account of the fact that the labor in this 

 country, especially skilled labor, commands so much more per diem in the return of wages than it does in London 

 or Belgium, it is not practicable for the Alaska Commercial Com])any, or any other company here, to attempt to dress 

 and put upon the market the catch of Bering sea, which is in fact the entire catch of the whole world. Our people 

 understand the theory of dressing these skins perfectly ; but they cannot compete with the cheaper labor of the 

 Old World. Therefore, nine-tenths nearly of the fur-seal skins taken every year are annually purchased and 

 dressed in London, and from thence distributed all over the civilized world where furs are worn and prized. 



Cause of varying prices op dressed seal-skins. — The great variations of the valu^of seal-skin sacques, 

 ranging from $75 up to $350, and even $500, is not often due to the variance in the quality of the fur originally; but 

 it is due to the quality of the work whereby the fur was treated and prepared for wear. For instance, the cheap 

 sacques are so defectively dyed that a little moisture causes them to soil the collars and cufts of their owners, and 

 a little exposure causes them speedily to fade and look ragged. A properly dyed skin, one that has been 

 conscientiously and laboriously finished, for it is a labor requiring great patience and great skill, will not rub off or 



*An Overland Journey Bound the IVorld, 1841-1842, Sir George Simpson, Governor-iu-Chief Iludsou Bay Company's territories,- 

 Philadlephia, 18-17, pp. 130-131. 



