APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 489 
1884. At p.116 of this is given an account of the raiding of Otter Islands, and the 
consequent request for a revenue marine guard at that place during the sealing 
season, which was granted. 
_ In 1885 Captain McLean again visited Behring’s Sea in the ‘‘ Mary Ellen.” He was 
there from the 4th July tothe 3rd September. He took 2,300 seals, and was not inter- 
fered with. 
Captain Healy, in reporting on the cruize of the ‘‘Corwin” in the Behring’s Sea, 
in 1885, when speaking of the seal fisheries, said: 
“During the year quite a number of vessels have raided Alaskan waters for seals 
and other fur-bearing animals.” (H.R. Ex. Doc. No. 153, 49th Congress, Ist Session, 
vol. xxxii. 
In 1886 he Governor of Alaska, in his Report for that year (p.43), states that an 
indiscriminate slaughter was carried on previous to the seizures of 1885. 
In 1886 Special Agent Tingle, to Secretary Fairchild, congratulated the Govern- 
_ ment on the arrest of the ‘‘San Diego,” which he called ‘‘an old offender.” 
445 ‘This,” Mr. Tingle remarked, ‘‘ will do much to break up marauding business 
around the islands.” He further urged the Government to keep a cutter about 
the islands from the 1st July to the Ist November. 
The above references, it is submitted, establish conclusively the defenceless condi- 
tion of the islands from the depredations of the marauders or poachers upon the 
rookeries (not one being a Canadian) ever since the islands came into the possession 
of the United States. 
Mr. Blaine, in his despatch of the 27th January, 1890, remarks that— 
“Proceeding by a close obedience to the laws of Nature, and rigidly limiting the 
number to be annually slaughtered, the Government succeeded in increasing the total 
number of seals and adding correspondingly and largely to the value of the fisheries.” 
And in the same despatch he speaks of the profitable pursuit of this business down 
to the year 1886. 
To show that at the present time the value of the islands is greater and their con- 
dition is better than ever, it is only necessary to observe that while the late lessees 
paid to the Government of the United States an annual rental of 50,000 dollars in 
addition to 2 dol. 624} .¢. per skin for the total number taken, the offers, when the 
islands were put up for competition in 1890, were enormously exceeded, as will be 
seen on reference to a schedule of the proposals submitted to the United States 
Treasury Department in response to the advertisements of the Treasury inviting 
offers for the privileges, dated the 24th December, 1889, and the 20th February, 1890. 
Upon reference to the evidence before the Congressional Committee (H. R. No. 3883, 
50th Congress, 2nd Session), it will be seen that ‘‘the Government now, without any 
care or risk, gets 317,000 dollars a-year for the lease.” And at p. 99 of the same Report 
it is stated that the annual income from skins to the Government was 512,736 dollars, 
and that in sixteen years the United States Government received from the Alaskan 
fur-seal industry 8,203,776 dollars. 
It is further stated that the Government had then already been repaid the capital 
sum paid for the whole Territory of Alaska, and more, with ‘‘ her many varied, and, 
as I believe, incomparably great national resources, to represent the investment of 
capital first made.” 
“ Fifth.—The Receipts and Expenses of the Government on account of said Contract. 
“The total amount paid by the lessees on account of said contract up to the 30th 
June, 1888, inclusive, was 5,597,100 dollars. The total amount expended by the Gov- 
ernment during the same period was about 250,000 dollars for salaries and travelling 
expenses of Agents of the Treasury Department at the Seal Islands, and about 150,000 
dollars for the revenue-cutters cruizing Alaskan waters. 
“To the amount already received direct from the Company should be added the 
sum received by the United States from customs duties on Alaskan-dressed sealskins 
imported from Europe, amounting to 3,426,000 dollars, to which should be added the 
sum of 502,000 dollars customs duties on imported sealskins taken by said Company 
under its contract with Russia, making an aggregate amount received by the Gov- 
ernment on account of this industry of 9,525,233 dollars, being 2,325,283 in excess of 
the amount paid to Russia for the Territory.” (Report of Congress, 1888.) 
It can now be shown how marvellous has been the increase of seals on these 
islands, notwithstanding the absence of the protection to the rookeries and 3-mile 
limit, whether around the islands or at the different passes in the Aleutian range, 
where the breeding seals in pup go twice a-year. 
In 1869 Special Agent Bryant estimated the number of seals to be as follows (41st 
Congress, 2nd Session, No. 32, Senate, p. 7): 
“On St. Paul Island..... NSBGEE Be ee eet Ieee Sere Oe ese eR ESE 1, 152, 000 
On, St: Georpe Islan@. 2-02 eo ccc a5. A Re ha REN Stray” la eae cts oh 576, 000 
ROLabeeremanses ease casas! teste sesh ek Pacenlssneassseltwiciniss sienielsiscesl Ly (20,000 
