APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



323 



No. 6. 



Letter from the Board of Adminis- 

 tration of the Russian- American 

 Company to Captain-Lieutenant 

 and Knight M. I. Muravief Chief 

 Manager of the Russian- Ameri- 

 can Colonies. Written from 8t. 

 Petersburg, March 15, 1821. 



Mr. Yanovsky, in his Eeport 

 under date of the 25th February, 

 1820, No. 41, describing his inspec- 

 tion of the fur-seal industry on the 

 Islands of St. Paul and St. George, 

 remarks that every year a greater 

 number of young bachelor seals is 

 being killed, while for propagation 

 there remained only the females, 

 sekatch,* and half sekatch.t Con- 

 sequently, only the old breeding 

 animals remain, and if any of the 

 young breeders are not killed by 

 autumn they are sure to be killed 

 in the following spring. From this 

 it naturally results that the indus- 

 try decreases every year in volume, 

 and that in course of time it may 

 be extinguished entirely, as can 

 clearly be seen from experiments 

 made. In order to avert such dis- 

 aster, it would be to our great 

 advantage that for one year no 

 seals at all should be killed. Then 

 strict orders should be issued that 

 the annual take of seals should not 

 exceed 40,000 on St. Paul and 

 10,000 on St. George. Mr. Yanov- 

 sky thinks that under such rules 

 the fur-seal will not continue to 

 diminish. The Board of Adminis- 

 tration of the Company, while ac- 

 knowledging the justice of these 

 remarks, would desire that these 

 measures be employed only in case 

 of a failure to discover other seal 

 rookeries on islands to the north- 

 ward and southward of the Aleutian 

 chain, which it is hoped to discover. 

 In the meantime, on the Islands of 

 St. Paul and St. George, every third 

 year the first "privaP'f only should 



No. 6. 



From the Board of Administration 

 of the Russian- American Com- 

 pany^ under the Protection of Mis 

 Lmperial Majesty, to Captain Mat- 

 vei Lvanovitch Muravief &c., 

 Chief Manager of the Russian- 

 American Colonies. 



(No. 175.) 



In his Eeport No. 41 of the 25th 

 February, 1820, Mr. Yanovsky, in 

 giving an account of his inspection 

 of the operations on the Islands of 

 St. Paul and St. George, observes 

 that every year the young bachelor 

 seals are killed, and that only the 

 cows, "sekatch," and half "se- 

 katch" are left to propagate the 

 species ; it follows that only the old 

 seals are left, while, if any of the 

 bachelors remain alive in the au- 

 tumn, they are sure to be killed 

 the next spring. The consequence 

 is, that the number of seals ob- 

 tained diminishes every year, and 

 it is certain that the species will 

 in time become extinct. 



This view is confirmed by expe- 

 rience. In order to prevent the 

 extinction of the seals, it would be 

 well to stop the killing altogether 

 for one season, and to give orders 

 that not more than 40,000 are ever 

 to be killed in any one year on the 

 Island of St. Paul, or more than 

 10,000 in anyone year on the Island 

 of St. George. 



Mr. Yanovsky considers that, if 

 these measures are adopted, the 

 number of seals will never dimin- 

 ish . The Board of Administration, 

 although they concur in Mr. Yan- 

 ovsky's view, have decided not to 

 adopt the measures proposed by 

 him unless it is found that there is 

 no migration of seals to the two 

 small islands which are believed to 

 exist to the south and north of the 

 chain of islands; they have decided 

 in the meantime that every fourth 

 season the first batch of seals arriv- 



* Bulla. + Young bulls. 



t The word "prival" means the larger waves of an incoming tide, and it is used 

 upon the assumption that the seals are landed upon the islands in three distinct 

 ■waves or " privais." The meaning of the text is not c^uite clear at this point. 



