SEALSKIN INDUSTRY IN UNITED STATES. 545 



Congress. The Company has received j'ust consideration at the hands of 

 the (lovernment, and though they have suft'ered to some extent from 

 CO mjdi cations of a political character, arising from the improper acts of 

 crews of foreign and domestic vessels, who, in contravention of the laws 

 of the United States, have entered upon the waters of the Territory and 

 slaughtered maliciously the seals, yet they feel ai^sured 

 that the Government will so assert and maintain its ^^^Lessee8feeia|3uieri 

 rights and authority that no cause of complaint will l-ights.'**^ ^°"" '' """^ 

 continue to exist. 



Under Russian rule there were many years of fiiulty management, 

 and at one time much danger of extermination of seal life at these 

 islands, but in time the Company came to regard seal life with so good 

 an eye to iireservation and perpetuation that their rules and regula- 

 tions in regard to these ijoints are still in force on the islands; but, 

 while they permitted free navigation throughout Bering Sea, they sternly 

 prohibited any interference with seal life in the waters thereof, and so 

 the United States Government will be forced to do if it would preserve 

 and perpetuate its present splendid property. 



Until about 1853 the skins shipped by the Russian American Com- 

 pany from these islands, over which they had absolute 

 control, up till the time of the cession to the United pamrbyihrCs^an 

 States, went forward in the parchment (or dried) state Amoiican company. 

 at the rate of about 20,000 per annum. About 1853 a 

 small trial shipment of salted skins was shipped in the hands of Messrs. 

 J. M. Oppenheim & Co., London, who had for many 

 years previous been the leading firm who unhaired and o/iheTidns.'"""^'*'"" 

 dressed fur-seals from Lobos Islands, Cape of Good 

 Hope, etc. The first experience with salted Alaskas proved a failure, 

 the skins not having been properly cured; by degrees, however, the 

 skins came forward in better condition, and in the year 1858 Messrs. 

 Oppenheim contracted with the Russian American Company for an an- 

 nual supply of from 10,000 to 12,000 salted fur-seals at 10«. lOd. per 

 skin, delivered in London. This quantity was increased about the year 

 18G4 to 20,000 per annum, the contract remaining in force until the time 

 when the territory was handed over to the United States Government. 

 In addition to the salted fur-seals, Messrs. Oppenheim received annu- 

 ally from the Russian American Company about 10,000 parchment fur- 

 seal at a price materially below that of tlie salted skins. Messrs. Op- 

 penheim shipped to the United States the first dressed and dyed 

 Alaska seals about 1800, but their shipments only amounted to a few 

 thousand skins per annum until 1865. From that year until 1872, when 

 this firm was liquidated, the quantity shipped by them increased from 

 2,000 to 3,000 per annum to probably 10,000 skins. 



Such was the state of the trade in fur-seal skins at the time of the 

 lease by the United States Government to the Alaska g,.^^^ ^^ sealskin 

 Commercial Company. Skins were of low value; there trade at time of lease 

 were no regular open sales; the dressing and dyeing 'c5'ompa«y.^°'"'"''"''^ 

 were badly done, and the net result of sales was insuf- 

 ficient to meet the rental, tax, and charges imposed by the Government 

 on the lessees at the date of the issue of the lease. The company 

 undertook the building up of this business by the intro- improved methods 

 duction of metliod and system on the islands in the j^*^'^^^'*^^*^ ^^ *^^ 

 place of the loose and careless management, by care- 

 ful selection of skins and great attention to the curing of them and by 

 guaranteeing regular sui)ply as to quantity and quality to the London 

 market. They were most ably seconded in their eftorts by the London 

 2710— VOL II 35 



