RELATING TO THE RUSSIAN SEAL ISLANDS. 197 



Affidavit of John Malowanshy. ayent of lessees of Commander Islands. 



management; pelagic sealing. 



State of California, 



City and County of San Francisco, ss: 



Jobn Malowansky, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I am a resi- 

 dent of San Francisco, Cal., and an American citizen, thongli a Eus- 

 sian by birth. I am a merchant by i)rofession, and am agent for the 

 Enssian Sealskin Comjiany, and was formerly, for many years, the 

 agent for Hutchinson, Kohl, Philhiiens & Co., the former lessees of the 

 Enssian seal islands. 



During the years 1869, 1870, and 1871 I resided on the Commander 

 Islands, in the pursuit of the sealing business, of which 

 I had charge, I was there again in 3 887 as the agent '^pen^ce. 

 of the company. I formerly lived in Kamchatka, and frequently vis- 

 ited the Commander Islands between 1871 and 1887. I have also been 

 a dealer in furs. I am well acquainted, from long experience and ob- 

 servation, with all matters pertaining to the seabng business and the 

 present condition of the fur-seal trade, especially on the Eussian side 

 of the Bering Sea. When our lease of the Commander Islands took 

 effect in 1870, the annual catch of seals would not exceed 15,000 without 

 injury to the herd. There was no maximum limit in our lease as to the 

 number we were allowed to kill, but under the method adopted by the 

 company in taking seals, only young males with mer- 

 chantable-sized skins were killed. Under this SVtem the increase on Com- 

 seals increased so rapidly that in 1887 we had no trouble in ?87o triss?.""^' ^""" 

 obtaining 45,000 skins per annum without injury to the 

 herd. In 1887 I began to notice a diminution in the j^ggj-oase sinoe issv 

 number of seals arriving at the islands, which was due ♦-croase smce 

 to the indiscriminate killing by sealing vessels in the open sea, some 

 50 or 00 miles distant. 



"While we still obtain about the usual number of skins, many are 

 taken from the younger animals than formerly, and smaiiw skins taisen. 

 consequently are somewhat inferior in quality. 



It is often difficult to entirely prevent poaching on the islands, al- 

 though in my judgment it has not been of suflicient pojcinucr 

 importance on the Commander Islands to have any 

 perceptible inllucnce in the diminuition of the herd. 



In 1891 the schooner J. H. Lewis was caught near the islands by the 

 Eussian gunboat Aleut and found to have 410 skins on gpi^^^e of the j- h 

 board. I made a personal examination of these skins, Leivu in i89i. 

 and found that from 90 to 95 per cent were those of ^^ ^^ 



female seals. I called the attention of the English cent of s^kins^oii ix.ard 

 commissioners. Sir George IJadcn-Powell and Br. G-. those of females. 

 M. Dawson, to this fact wlien they visited the islands caiied attention of 

 in 1891, showing them the skins. I opened a few bun- British ^commissiou- 

 dles of the skins for their inspection and offered to show 

 all of them, but they said they were satisfied without looking at any 

 more than those already opened. I remember that a schooner from Vic- 

 toria was also seized at the islands about three years ago by the Ens- 

 sian authorities with 33 skins on board, which were nearly all taken 

 from female seals. 



I have no doubt that in obtaining the skins found on the J. H. Leicis 

 the poachers must have killed from 1,500 to 2,000 seals, ^.^^^^ ^^ j^^^^ 

 as when vitally shot seals will usually sink befwe it is 

 possible to capture them. 



