THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 157 



38. COMMENTS UPON THE LEGISLATION OP CONGRESS. 



Eatio of catch at fiest incorrectly apportioned. — The origiual text of the existing hiw for the 

 protection of the seal-islands, provides that the 100,000 seals which may be annually taken from them shall be 

 proportioned by killing 75,000 on St. Paul and 25,000 on St. George. This ratio was based evidently upon the 

 foregoing table of Veniaminov, which, if accurate, would clearly show that fully one-third as many seals repaired to 

 the smaller island as to the larger one, and until I made my surveys, 1872-74, it was so considered by all parties 

 interested. The fact, however, which I soou discovered, is that St. George receives only one-eighteenth of the 

 whole aggregate of fur-seal visitation peculiar to the Pribylov islands, St. Paul entertaining the other seventeen 

 l>arts. 



Reason for ajiendment of 1874. — This amazing difference, in the light of prior knowledge and understanding, 

 caused me, on returning to Washington in October, 1873, to lay the matter before the Treasury Department, and 

 ask that the law be so modified that, in the event of abnormally warm killing-seasons, a smaller number might 

 be taken from St, George, with a corresponding increase at St. Paul; for, unless this was done, it might become at 

 aiiy season a matter of great hardship to secure 25,000 killable seals on St. George, in the short period allotted by 

 the law of July 1, 1870. The Treasury Department, while fully concurring in my representations, seemed to doubt 

 its power to do so; then, with its sanction, I carried the question before Congress, January, 1874, and secured from 

 that body an amendment of the act of July 1, 1870, above quoted in full (act, etc., approved March 24, 1874), which 

 gives the Secretary of the Treasury full discretion in the matter, and fixes the hitherto inflexible ratio of killing 

 on each island upon a sliding scale, as it were, for adjustment from season to season, upon a more intelligent 

 understanding of the subject; and, also, this amendatory act grants an extension of the legal limit of killing, by 

 giving the Se(;rctary of the Treasury the power to fix it annually. 



Laav works well. — As the law is now amended, the killing on the two islands can be sensibly adjusted each 

 season, by the relative number of se.ils on the two islands, which will vary so markedly on St. George according as 

 it may be abnormally dry and wai-m when the period for driving the "holluschickie" is at hand.* 



Special Agents of the Treasury Department. — Prior to March, 1872, the supervision of the Treasury 

 Department over its interests on the Pribylov islands was directed by the detail of special agents from the Secretary, 

 who paid them out of a contingent fund of $50,000, which Congress voted in 18(58 for the "collection of customs" 

 iu Alaska; this appropriation running out, the secretary drew the following bill, which Congress adopted, and it 

 was approved March 5, 1872 : 



Section L Be it enacted, etc., That tlie Secretary of the Treasury be, and he i.s hereby, authorized to appoint one agent .and three 

 assistant agents, who shall be charged with the management or the seal-tislieries in Alaska, and the performance of such other duties as 

 maybe assigned to them by the Secretary of the Treasury; and the said agent shall receive the sura often dollars ^)er diem; one assistant 

 agent the sum of eight dollars yer diem; and two assistant agents the sum of six dollars each per diem while so employed ; and they shall 

 also be allowed their necessary traveling expenses in going to and returning from Alaska, such expenses not to exceed the sum of three 

 hundred dollars in any one year. 



Sec. II. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and is hereby, authorized to erect a dwelling-house upon 

 each of the islands of St. Paul and St. George, for the nse of said agents, the cost of both not to exceed the sum of six thousaiul dollars. 



Sec. III. And he it farther enacted, That the said .agents be, and they are hereby, empowered to administer oaths in all cases relating 

 to the service of the United States, and to take testimony in Alaska for the use of the government in any manner concerning the public 

 revenues. 



Under this law the present force of treasury officers is creditably maintained on the Pribylov islands. Living 

 there, as they do, in perfect isolation, so far from headquarters, it is necessary that, to insure the personal ability 

 of the officers to be out on the killing-grounds in the sealing-season, tw^o agents at least should be detailed upon 

 each island, as they are; should one fall sick, then the other is on hand. The work every year of taking the seals, 

 like the moving of the tides, cannot and will not wait for any man; it is literally "now or never!" with its conduct. 



* Upon my urgent and persistent representations, the law directing, and appropriating for, the maintenance of a revenue cutter in 

 Alaska waters, for the protection of the seal-islands and sea-otter hunting-grounds, was inserted in the sundry civil budget for 1377; and, 

 in May of that year, the late Capt. George W. Bailey, in the United States revenue marine cutter "Richard Rush", sailed on that errand 

 from San Francisco. This special service has been continued ever since, and now will remain a regularly sustained action on the part of 

 the department, I trust. The excellent record and efSeiency of the supervision rendered by Ihe revenue marine iu Alaska has been so well 

 maintained and is so apparent, that I do not see how it can be suffered to fall. It is the only effective arm of the United States government 

 iu that region, or that li.is ever been so. All travel in th.at country is essentially by w.ater; nine-tenths of its people live by the seaside. 



The fur-se.ils of Alaska, collectively and individually, are the property of the general government, and for lheir special and sole 

 protection the extra legisLatiou of July, 1870, was designedly enacted. Every fur-seal playing in the w.aters of Bering sea .around about 

 the Pribylov islands, no matter if found so doing one hundred miles away from those rookeries, belongs there, has been begotten and 

 born thereon, and is the animal that the explicit shield of the law protects; no legal sophism or quibble cau cloud the whole truth of 

 my statement. Construe the l.aw otherwise, then a marine license of hunting beyond a marine league ('i mihs) from the shores of 

 the Pribylov isl.ands, would soon raise up such a multitudinous fleet, that its cruising could not fail, iu a few short years, in so hiirassiug 

 and irritating Ihe breeding-seals as to cause their withdrawal from the Alaskan rookeries, aud probable retreat to those of Russia — a 

 source of undoubted Muscovitic delight and emolument, and of corresponding shame and loss to us. 



The matter Is, however, now thoroughly appreciated and understood at the Treasury Deparlment, and has been during the past 

 fmir years, as the seal pirates have discovered to their chagrin aud discomliture. 



