166 DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



No. 22. 



Letter from the board of administration of the Russian American Com 

 pany to Captain of the First Bank and Knight Adolf Carlovitch Etho- 

 lin, chief manager of the Russian American colonies. Written from 

 St. Petersburg March <S, 1843. 



The board of administration fully approves the arrangements for kill- 

 ing seals described by you in dispatch No. 287, of May 9, 1842, and per- 

 mits you to institute on the Commander Islands and St. George the 

 close season which you propose. In general, for the greatest possible 

 preservation of this precious animal, the board of administration re- 

 quests you to adopt as an invariable rule the following: To prosecute 

 the annual killing of the seals in such manner that they may not only 

 not be exterminated on the rookeries, but, on the contrary, may con- 

 tinually increase in numbers, that is to say, that the amount of the an- 

 nual increase may be always greater than the number of animals killed. 

 At the present time the shipment of 10,000 sealskins to Eussia every 

 year will be sufficient to prevent a fall in prices. 



Wrangel, 

 A. Severin, 

 N. Prokofyef, 

 N. Kusof, 



Directors. 



No. 23. 



Letter from the board of administration of the Russian American Com : 

 pany to Captain of the Imperial Navy of the Second Rank Alexander 

 Llitch Rudakof. Written from St. Petersburg April 22, 1853. 



Seeing, from dispatches received from your excellency's predeces- 

 sors that the seals in the colonies are rapidly increasing in numbers, 

 and foreseeing a regular demand for them, the board of administration 

 instructs you to make corresponding arrangements, in order that here- 

 after until further instructions the killing of seals may be prosecuted 

 on all the islands which they frequent to such an extent as may seem 

 possible without impoverishing the rookeries. The rules for the pro- 

 tection of the cows, etc., must be observed as heretofore. 



Of the seals killed, 6,000 must be sent every year by way of Ayan to 

 Kiachta, 10,000 to Shanghai, and all that remain to St. Petersburg by 

 the vessels going around the world. 



At the same time the board of administration suggests that you 

 stop salting the sealskins, as has been done heretofore, since it has a 

 bad effect upon their sale. 



V. POLITKOVSKY, 



Presiding Officer. 

 V. Klupfel, 

 A. Etholin, 

 N. Kusof, 

 Baron Wrangel, 



Members. 



