RELATING TO PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 53 



served the harder work in handling and subdividing the drove from 

 the more distant places, because of the more savage intractable char- 

 acter of the bulls. 



I believe the seals to be susceptible of a high degree of domestica- 

 tion. If their strongpropensity to bite whatever comes „ ^n ^ 



.,, . nc • ■ ■. 1 -1 -XT in Susceptible of a 



Within onensive proxmnty, whether it be, seal cub or high degree of domes- 

 a hunter's limb, could be cured, they could be as easily tJcation. 

 managed as a flock of sheep. Each one of the young jDups driven for 

 the customary food supply before their first migration is picked up by 

 the hind flippers to determine the sex, females even at this age being 

 spared, and when thus in the hands of the hunters „ ., .,., ,, 



^,,," ,., 1T1 11 XI 11 Possibilitv of brand- 



could be as readily marked or branded as any thoroughly ingorotberwisemark- 



domesticated animal. In fact, a large number were ^^■ 

 thus marked in 1872, by Special Treasury Agent Charles Bryant, by 

 clipping the ear as a means of further identification. Every seal upon 

 the islands has in this way been, or might have been, if we had so 

 elected, within our very grasp, to kill or not to kill, to brand or not to 

 brand, as we thought best, its skin liaving at the same time com- 

 mercial value. I conceive that no further act of domestication is re- 

 quired to constitute under common law complete and absolute owner- 

 shii), coupled, of course, with the right of iDrotection of the property, 

 wherever found. 



In respect to the propagation and. perpetuation of the species, they 

 are as controllable and amenable to good management p^^ ^ ationand 

 upon the islands as sheep or cattle. If the right pro- pe^pptJ^^ti^n'of *tbe 

 portion is maintained between the sexes, the greatest ^"P'^^'^e^- 

 possible number of progeny is assured. As long as we were able to 

 keep exclusive control, undisturbed by outside Influences, we main- 

 tained the steady increase of the herd and profitable returns from the 

 industry. When outside parties, beyond our jurisdiction, carried on 

 their destructive work, to any considerable extent, the equilibrium of 

 the sexes was destroyed, any calculation of those in charge of the 

 islands was nullified or miscarried and the speedy decrease and ulti- 

 mate destruction of the seals and sealing industry made certain. 



In contemplating this destruction, tbe natives of the seal islands are 

 most deeply interested, for they are wholly dependent 

 upon the seals for a livelihood. The ancestors of the ^.Effect of destruc- 



./ Ill 1 ji • 1 1 tion on natives. 



three hundred people now upon the islands were 

 taken there more than one hundred years ago, and their descendants 

 have been born and bred to their occupation of seal killing, and know 

 no other. Prior to 1868 the Russians furnished them only indifferently 

 well with coarse articles of food and clothing which the seals did not sup- 

 ])ly, but left them to live in unhealthy conditions in their damp under- 

 ground houses, often unsupplied with fuel and not infrequently short of 

 food. Under the liberal management of the Americans 

 they have been provided with comfortable wooden of^Tativef T n d er 

 houses, an abundance of coal to heat them, warm cloth- American manage 

 ing, well-taught schools in comfortable school-houses, at- ™''°*' 

 tractive churches in the Greco-Russian faith, to which they are devotedly 

 attached, and, in sliort, with all the comforts and many of the luxuries 

 of civilization. With these surroundings they have made remarkable 

 progress, rendered possible by their income of more than $40,000 per 

 annum from the seal fisheries, without which they are left in absolute 

 poverty, and must either leave their island home in search of other 

 employment of which they know nothing, rely ui)on the charity of the 

 Government for meager support, or starve. They rightly charge these 



