284 EXTRACTS FROM VARIOUS PUBLICATIONS. 



1870 to 1874, inclusive, while the actual seal-skius taken on which tax 

 was paid was 403,208. 



I find, however, that the number of skins sold by Messrs. Lampsoii 

 & Company on account of the Alaska Commercial Company was 403,7G7, 

 which, as stated, is a discrepancy of 551) skins on which no tax was 

 paid. 



It would, therefore, seem evident that a tax of $2.62£ per skin, or a 

 total of $1,467.37, is due to the Treasury by the Alaska Commercial 

 Company. With the adjustment of these 559 skins from which a tax 

 is due to the Treasury, 1 that portion of my instructions which requires 

 me to ascertain the correctness of taxes paid on skins taken from the 

 islands during 1870-'74, inclusive, will no doubt prove as satisfactory 

 to the Department as it is to me to be able to record it. 



EXTRACT FROM THE FISHERIES AND FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF 

 THE UNITED STATES. 2 



THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF CAPE FLATTERY AND VICINITY. 



James G. Swan. 



1. History, present condition, and methods of the industry. 



The northern fur-seals (Callorhinus ursinns Gray), in their annual 

 migration north, approach the coast between Point Grenville, Wash- 

 ington Territory, and the western shores of Vancouver Island, British 

 Columbia, in vast herds, and are taken by the Indians of Cape Flat- 

 tery and the natives of Vancouver Island on the ocean off the coast, and 

 occasionally in the Strait of Fuca as far inland as the Dungeness Light. 



The great body of these seals keep well out to sea, and during the 

 present year (1880) have been reported by vessels bound in from China 

 and the Sandwich Islands as having been seen from 100 to 300 miles off 

 shore, covering the sea as far as the eye could reach, and looking like 

 vast beds of kelp in the distance. 



Meteorological causes seem to effect this vast collection, sometimes 

 causing it to keep off from the shore at a great distance, with only a few 

 scattering ones coming near enough to fall victims to the Indian's spear. 

 At other times, and notably the present season, the great herd sways 

 inward toward the land, following the same general movement as may 

 be observed in a school of herring, the center of the school or herd 

 being invariably the most numerous. 



During the voyage of Captain Meares in 1788-'S9, as well as those of 

 Portlock, Dixon, Manhand, and other early voyagers, but little mention 

 is made of seals, as they were then of such small value that in the list 

 of furs and skins which the captains were directed to procure no men- 

 tion is made of them, the sea-otter then being the most plentiful, as it 

 was and is at this time the most costly and beautiful of all the furs. _ 



Blaek fox-skins were very valuable, as also sable, black beaver, and 

 black marten ; but river otter and seals were classed with inferior furs, 

 which the captains were directed to purchase or not as they judged 

 best, but to confine their work to the sea-otter. 



From all the accounts given in the records of those early voyages, as 

 well as from the traditions of the Indians, it seems that a hundred years 



'This tax was duly paid. See Report No. 623, 44th Congress, p. 68. 

 *Sec. V, Vol. II, p. 393. 



