THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



165 



scant supply; then -when the season closes tliey will gravely tell you that there never were so many seals on the 

 island before! I was greeted in this manner by the agents of the company and the government in 1872, again in 

 1873, and again in 1874. I did not get up to the grounds in 1876 soon enough to hear the usual spring croaking ot 

 of disaster; but arrived, however, in time to hear the regular cry of "never was so many seals here before"! 



40. FINAL NOTES AND TABLES EELATIVE TO THE VALUE, PROTECTION, AND GEOWTH OF 

 THE FUE-SEAL; AND THE EE VENUE DEEIVKD FEOM THAT INDUSTEY ON THE 



PEIBYLOV ISLANDS. 



An exhibit of values given by Veniaminov.— Pt. i : ZtqncsMc, etc., p. 83, showing the relative importance, 

 commercially, of the land and marine furs taken from the OonalashUa district (and sold) in 1833, by the Eussiau 

 American Company. (This district embraces the Pribylov islands.) 



Sea-ot^ra , 



Black foxes 



Cross foxes 



Ked foxes , 



Blue foxes 



Land-otters 



Fur-seals 



Walrus-ivory 



Whalebone 



Miecellaneons furs- 



Sort of fur. 



Sum total.. 



Number of 

 skins. 



100 



300 



600 



500 



1,500 



80 



15, 000 



100 poods. 



200 poods. 



Price per skin. 



450 paper 

 150 paper 

 25 paper 

 10 paper 

 10 paper 

 50 paper 

 50 paper 

 80 paper 

 40 paper 



rubles, 

 rubles, 

 rubles, 

 rubles, 

 rubles, 

 rubles, 

 rubles, 

 rubles, 

 rubles. 



Sum of 

 value. 



45, 000 



45, COO 



15, 000 



5,000 



15, 000 



4,000 



750, 000 



8,000 



8,000 



1,000 



896, 000 



Hednced to 

 our currency. 



150, 

 1, 

 1, 



$179, 200 



Semarks by the anthor, H. W. E. 



Enhydra marina. 



Yulpes/ulvv-8 var. argcntaiut. 



Tulpes /ulvTis var. decussat'iu. 



Yulpes fuloug, 



Yulpes lagopus. 



Lutra canadenns. 



Callorhinxts ursinus. 



A "poodis 36iV pounds avoirdupois. 



The baleen from the right whale, Sakena. 



Deer and sea-lion skins, odds and ends, etc. 



The country (Alaska) is divided up into 5 districts : Sitka, Kadiak, Oonalashka, Atka, and the North. 



This whole country is under the control and government of the "Eussian-American Company". » * * The 

 business is conducted with a head, or a colonial governor, assisted by officers of the Imperial navy (Enssian), and 

 those of the company's fleet, and other chiefs ; in every one of the districts the company has an ofiflce, which is 

 under the direction of an office chief (or agent), and he in turn has foremen (or "bidarsheeks"). 



The comjiany on the island of St. Paul killed from 60,000 to 80,000 fur-seals per annum, but in the last time 

 (1833?), with all possible care in getting them, they took only 12,000. On the island of St. George, instead of getting 

 40,000 or 35,000, only 1,300 were killed. • * * [Veniaminov: Zapieshie, etc., pt. i: chap, xii, 1840.] 



The table and extracts which I quote above give me the only direct Eussian testimony as to the value of the 

 Pribylov fur-seal catch when the skins were in scant supply. It will be seen that they were worth then just $10 each. 



I now append a brief but significant extract from Techmainov — significant simply because it demonstrates that 

 all Eussian testimony, other than Veniaminov's, is ptterly self-contradictory in regard to the number of seals taken 

 from the Pribylov islands. Techmainov first gives a series of tables which he declares are a true transcript and exhibit 

 of the skins sold out of Alaska by the Eussian -American Company. . The latest table presented, and up to the date 

 of his writing, 1862, shows that 372,894 fur-seal skins were taken from the Pribylov islands, via Sitka, to the Eussian 

 markets of the world, in the years 1842-1862, inclusive; or giving an average catch of 18,644 per annum, (p. 221.) 

 Then further on as he writes (nearly one hundred pages), he stultifies his record above quoted by using the language 

 and figures as follows : 



"In earlier times more were taken than in the later; at present (1862) there are taken from the island of St. 

 Paul 70,000 annually without diminishing the number for future killing; on St. George, 6,000. * • * From 1842 

 to 1861 there were taken from the island of St. Paul 277,778 seal skins; blue foxes, 10,508; walrus teeth, 104 poods; 

 from St. George, 31,923 fur-seals; blue foxes, 24,280." [P. Techmainov : Eestorecheskoi Obozerainia Obrazovania, 

 Eussian-American Company; pt. ii, p. 310, 1863, St. Petersburg.] Further comment is unnecessary upon this author, 

 who thus writes a "history of the doings of the Eussian-American Company". Still, since Veniaminov's time, 

 1838-'40,it is the ovlj prima facie testimony that we have touching these subjects while under Eussian domination. 



Eussian governors controlling the Pribylov islands. — The following list gives the names of the 

 several autocratic governors of the Eussian-American Company, who, in their order of mention, exercised absolute 

 control over the the Pribylov islands between 1799 and 1867, inclusive ; 1, Baranov ; 2, Tahnovskie ; 3, Mooray vev ; 

 4, Chestyahkov; 5, Wrangell ; 6, Kooprianov ; 7, Etholine; 8, Tebenkov; 9, Eossenburg; 10, Viaviatskie ; 11, 

 Foragelm ; 12, Maxsuto_v. Of the above, with the exception of Baranov, who was a self-made man, and General 

 Viaviatskie, of the Eussian army, all the others were admirals and captains in the Imperial navy of Eussia. 



First exemption of females in driving. — In the details of an old letter from a Creole agent of the 

 Eussian-American Company, on SL Paul, in 1847, I find the following side reference to the number of skins which 

 were shipped from the Pribylov islands that season : [Ms. letter of Kazean Shiesneekov, St. Paul island, 1847.] 



5,606 "holluscbiclcov" (voting males). 



1,894 "sairiee" (four and five year-old males), or a total of 7,497. 



