496 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
killed in the South Seas, are all the market of the world can conveniently take. In 
fact, it is pretty evident the very restriction of the numbers killed is about the 
most valuable part of the franchise of the Alaska Commercial Company, and it is 
only another proof of the absurdity of the frequent charges made against them that 
they surreptitiously take from our islands 20,000 or 30,000 more seals than they are 
entitled to take. 
* t * * * * * 
‘There does not exist any doubt, nor indeed is it denied by the Alaska Commercial 
Company, that the lease of the Islands of St. Paul and St. George is highly luera- 
tive. The great success of this franchise is, however, owing, as far as I could ascer- 
tain, to three principal causes: Ist, the Alaska Commercial Company, owing to the 
fact that they have the sole control of the three Asiatic islands on which fur-seals are 
found, as well as on our own islands, as St. Paul and St. George, virtually manage 
the sale of 80 per cent. of all the fur-seals killed annually in the world; 2ndly, the 
arbitrary and somewhat eccentric law of fashion has raised the price of fur-seals in 
the markets of the world during the last four years fully 100 per cent. in value; 
3rdly, time and experience have given this controlling Company most valuable advan- 
tages. For instance,in the Island of St. Paul, where a reputed number of from 
3,000,000 to 3,500,000 of seals congregate, the comparatively small quantity only of 
formerly 75,000 and now 90,000 are killed. The Company employs experts in select- 
ing easily the kind that are the most valuable in the market, and have no difficulty in 
getting 90,000 out of a flock of 3,000,000 to 3,500,000, which are the select of the select; 
and it is owing to this cause, and to the care taken in avoiding cuts in the skins, as 
also in properly preparing them for the market, that the high prices are obtained. 
Indeed, the fact is that a fur-seal selling now in London for 21. 10s. or 31. is, owing 
to its superior quality and excellent condition, cheaper than the fur-seals which five 
years ago fetched 30s. sterling. The former mode of the indiscriminate killing of 
fur-seals was as detrimental to the value of the skins as it was to the existence of 
the breed. With such a valuabje franchise, secured by a contract that has still fif- 
teen years to run, but which could, without notice, be terminated by the Secretary 
of the Treasury for cause, it would indeed be a suicidal policy on the part of the 
Company to infringe on the stipulations of the contract.” 
All this is explained in the evidence before the Congressional Committee, pp. 77, 101, 
105, and 121, where the Company is shown not to have taken the full quota in two 
years: 
“Not because we could not get encugh seals, but because the market did not 
demand them. There were plenty of seals.” (Evidence before Congressional Com- 
mittee, p. 121.) 
450 Mr. McIntyre, once a Special Agent, has already been quoted, and was after- 
wards in the service of the Company, reported, in 1869, to the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, Mr. Blaine (H. R. Ex. Doc. No. 36, 41st Congress, 2nd 
Session), that— 
“The number of skins that may be secured, however, should not be taken as the 
criterion on which to fix the limit of the yearly catch, but rather the demand of the 
market, keeping of course always within the annual production. It appears that 
under the Russian management a much larger number was sometimes killed than 
could be advantageously disposed of. Thus in 1803, after the slaughter had been 
conducted for some years without regard to the market, an accumulation of 800,000 
skins was found in the storehouses on the islands, 700,000 of which were thrown 
into the sea as worthless. At several times since that date the market has been 
glutted, and sales almost or quite suspended. A few months previously to the trans- 
fer of Alaska to the United States sealskins were worth in London only 1 dol. 50 c. 
to 3 dollars each, and several thousand skins owned by the Russian-American Com- 
pany were sold to parties in San Francisco, at the time of the transfer, at 50 cents 
to 1 dol. 25 ¢., a sum insufficient to pay the present cost of securing and transport- 
ing them to that city. Soon afterwards, however, fur-seal garments became fash- 
ionable in Europe, and in the expectation that the usual supply would be cut off by 
reason of the transfer of Alaska, prices advanced to 4 to 7 dollars per skin; contrary 
to the expectation of dealers more than 200,000 skins were taken by the various 
parties engaged in the business on the islands in 1868, and the London price has 
declined to 3 or 4 dollars per skin; and I am assured that if the raw skins now held 
by dealers in London were thrown upon the market, a sufficient sum to pay the cost 
of transportation from the islands could hardly be realized. The number of raw 
skins now upon the market is not less than 350,000, and it is predicted that several 
years must elapse before the demand will again raise the price above the present rate, 
if indeed the large surplus of skins does not carry it much lower before reaction 
begins.” 
Many of the dangers to seal life have been mentioned, and it has been shown that 
the herd still thrives; but the wonderful productiveness of the seal is further shown 
<p elie 
