COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 197 



The first efltect of the "management" of the Pribyloff 

 Islands by the United States must be conceded to liave 

 beenmostdisastrous to seal life. The results of the extraor- British com- 

 dinary slaughter which tlien occurred are traced in the p^^j^'^p^^^^g ^^| 

 Eeport of the British Commissioners, soa' 



PARTIAL BUT INEFFECTIVE CONTROL ESTABLISHED BY 

 THE UNITED STATES IN 18G9. NUMBER OF SEALS 

 KILLED UNKNOWN. 



Sixteen months after the date of the Alaska Cession, an 

 Act was passed by the United States Congress, which, 

 with other provisions, rendered it unlawful to kill certain 

 fur-bearing animals (including the fur-seal) in Alaska; and 

 in 1869 Government control of the Pribyloff Islands to a 

 limited extent a])pears to have been attem])ted. Agents of ^^.^ ara 809 

 the United States Government were certainly ui^on the unitea^'^states 

 islands, but the actual nnmber of seals killed is not known, ^vgl^ii^tcra"*!,' 

 the estimates made by various oflicials ranging from about -ind Sesa., pp! 

 42,000 to alxmt 150,000. Mr. H. W. Elliott in his Mono- United states 

 graph gives the number killed as 87,000, census Report, 



o i- '^ ' p. 25, 



227 ABOUT 500,000 seals killed in the years 



1867-60. 



It is thus apparent that during the three years 1867, 1868, ^^f^^°l^^ ^*;J^^y 

 and 1869, over 400,000 seals were killed, and it is probable General jetfer- 

 that, including the 30,000 or 35,000 killed on St. George ^^g^^^i a^.YsTo'. 

 Island, with other unrecorded killings, the actual number 

 was nearer 500,000. 



No supervision was exercised as to the kind of seals 

 killed, and though there is reason to believe that, in conse- 

 quence of the i)revious training of the Aleuts under the 

 Kussians, these were chiefly males, it is known that at least British com- 

 40,000 females were included, in the single year 1868. port, paia. sos. 



Mr. H. W. Elliott writes, concerning the management of 

 the Pribyloff Islands previous to the control of the Alaska 

 C o m m er ci a 1 Co m p an y : 



It was a disorderly medley of civil and military authority, and, as "Report on 



near as I can learn, retlects no special credit ou any of the oincers condition of Af- 



conccrned on the part of the Government. fairs in Alaska," 



^ p. 240. 



THE PROPOSAL TO LEASE THE PRIBYLOFFS TO A 

 COMPANY CONDEMNED. 



In 1870, the United States Government decided to lease 

 the right of killing seals upon the Pribyloff Islands to the 

 highest responsible bidder; an Act of Congress was jiassed 

 for this puri)0se, and a lease was accorded to the Alaska 

 Comm'ercial Company for a period of twenty years. The 

 wisdom of the step thus taken was very seriously ques- 

 tioned in the United States at the time, 



MR. WASHBURNE. 



Mr. Wasliburne, in the House of Representatives, on the ^ i^,*\"^??^' qTi! 

 13th January, 1869, in a debate on a JBill to provide terri- con'g.,'3rd sess., 

 tonal Government for Alaska, opposed section 7 on theP-^"*^- 



