THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 1G7 



labor in collecting, and his notes in regard to the Makah Indians of Cape Flattery; hence his erroneous statements. 

 ■above referred to (as to the fur-seal) had a, prima facie weight with Alleu, who, therefore, inserted them, and thiis 

 gave the romance an appearance of reality, which I cannot pass by in silence. The other, though hesitating, 

 authority, Charles Bryant, is an old mariner, who has also been well situated by virtue of eight years' residence on 

 St. Paul island ; he ought to know better. 



OlUGINAL SOURCE OF ERKOK IN REGARD TO NUBILITY OF FEMALE FUR-SEALS. — YeniaminOV : Zapicsldc, o'l) 



Oonalaslil;ensl;aho Otdayla: Veniaminov little dreamed, as he labored over his queer calculations in 1834, that the 

 then depleted rookeries of the Pribylov islands would have yielded, from ISGS to dale, an annual average of more 

 than three times 32,(!00 fur-seal skius; which number he at that time deemed the maximum limit of their ultimate 

 production, should his tabulated advice be carried out. Is it not exceedingly strange that he never thought, during 

 all his cogitations over this problem, of the real vital principle — of letting the females entirely alone — of sparing 

 them strictly? I tliink that the worthy Bishop would have done so, had he passed more time on the rookeries 

 himself. I cannot find, however, who the Kussian was that had the good judgment, first of all men, to inaugurate 

 a perpetual "ssapooska" of the females on the Pribylov islands; it was done in 1S47, for the first time, and has been 

 rigidly followed ever since, giving the full expansion in 1857 to that extraordinary increase and beneficial result 

 which we observe thereon today. I have been much amused in reading [Allen: Hist. Finnipc<h, p. 383] the 

 argument of an old sailor, who had been stationed for eight years ou these islands in charge of the United States 

 Treasury interests. He claims to feel well assured that the female seals, when two years old, never land on the 

 islands during that season of their age; remaining out at sea, and not coming to the Pribylov rookeries until their 

 third year of growth! thus bearing their first young when four years old. I mention the fact, because it is not an 

 origin; I error of the aged treasury agent, but is evidently adopted from this account of Veniaminov, which was 

 veiball/ translated and read to him in 1869, ou St. Paul island, by one of the ex-agents of the Kussian Company. 

 The erroneous statement, however, is quoted in Allen: Pinnipeds (p. 383), with a grave preface by the author, 

 that it is the result of eight years' study of the subject on the islands. Unfortunately, Veniaminov, himself, did 

 not spend even eight consecutive weeks on the seal-grounds in question, and had he passed eight months there, 

 investigating the matter, he would not — could not — have made this superficial blunder, in addition to his numerous 

 other faulty anuouncemeuts, etc., which the '■'■ Zapieslde'''' teems with, in regard to the seal-life. 



Causes which occasion and demand the presence of a revenue-marine cutter in Alaskan avaters. — 

 There remains an unwritten page in the history of the action of the government toward the pro:ection of seal-life 

 on the Priliylov islands, and it is eminently proper that it should uc inscribed now, especially so siuce the author 

 of this memoir was an eye-witness and an actor iu the scene. "When he first visited the seal-islands, in 1872-'73, 

 he was compelled to take passage on the vessels of the company leasing the islands; compelled, because tlie 

 government at that tiuie had no means of reaching the field of action, except by the favor and the courtesy of 

 the Alaska Commercial Company. This favor and this courtesy, as might be expected, was alwaj's promptly and 

 generously proffered, and has never been alhided to as even an obligation or service rendered the Treasury 

 Department. But, nevertheless, the thought occurred to me at the time, and was strengthened into conviction by 

 1S74, that this indifference to its own self-respect and failure to support properly the aims of its agents up there, 

 should end ; and that the Treasury Department should detail one of its own vessels to visit, transport, and aid its 

 officers on the Pribylov islands, and also be an actual living evidence of power to execute the law protecting and 

 conserving the same. 



In this sequence, do not misunderstand me; while the Alaska Commercial Company never entertained, and 

 do not now entertain, the thought of refusing the favor asked by the government in transporting its own treasury 

 cfllcials to and from the seal-islands, yet, it would be a relief to that company if those agents aforesaid should bo 

 carried up and down upon the vessels of the goveruraent — a relief solely ou the ground that a carping criticism 

 is always made upon their courtesy and kindness in this respect, and a corresponding reflection thrown upon the 

 treasury agents, who are compelled to take this method of con\eyance, or else be absent from their field of duty, which 

 the company does not propose to effect by barring them from its steamer, the aforesaid criticism notwithstanding. 



Therefore, upon the occasion of my return from the field in question, October, 1874, I clearly recognized the 

 immediate necessity of strengthening the arm of the government iu that region, because, iu addition to the 

 foregoing reason, the following still more urgent one existed aud exists : 



Early in 1873 it became well known on the Pacific coast, that the officers of the law on the seal-islands had no 

 means of enforcing the regulations protecting the seal-life on the same or in the waters adjacent ; hejice, a number 

 of small craft, fitted out at San Francisco and contiguous ports, which cleared for the northwest coast and the 

 Aleutian islands ou "fishing ventures"; but, iu reality, these vessels proceeded directly to the waters and rocks 

 adjacent to the seal-islands, where, iu plain sight of the villages on either islet, they shot the swimming seals with 

 assumed indifference and great affection of legality ! 



In order, therefore, that this plain violation of law and its disastrous consequence should be effectually punished, 

 and evaded, I published, and personally urged in 1874-'77, the urgent need and great propriety of enabling tlie 

 responsible agents of the government ou the Pribylov islands, to enforce the law as well physically as it could be 



