VI FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



Alaska was a lease of tbe riglit to take fur seals for their skins for a 

 period of twenty years from May 1, 1870, on the islands of St. Paul and 

 St. George to the Ahiska Commercial Company of San Francisco j for 

 which privilege said company agreed to pay to the United States a 

 rental of $55,000 per annum and a revenue tax, or duty, of $2.62J per 

 skin taken and shipped from the islands ; to furnish to the inhabitants 

 of said islands free of charge 2,500 dried salmon annually ; 60 cords of 

 fire- wood ; a sufficient quantity of salt, and a sufficient number of barrels 

 for preserving the necessary supply of meat; to maintain a school on 

 each island for the education of the natives, for a period of not less than 

 eight months in each year. 



To secure the payment of the rental a deposit of $50,000 in United 

 States bonds is required, and for the complete performance of the cov- 

 enants of the lease by the lessee, a bond in the sum of $500,000 is ex- 

 acted. 



The lessee is permitted to kill 100,000 fur seals on St. Paul and 

 St. George Islands, and no more, and is prohibited from killing any 

 female seal or any seal less than one year old, and from killing any fur 

 seal at any time except during the months of June, July, September, 

 and October, and from killing such seals by the use of fire arms or 

 other means tending to drive the seals from said islands, and from kill- 

 ing any seal in the water adjacent to said islands, or on the beaches, 

 clifl's, or rocks where they haul up from the sea to remain. 



THIRD. — THE AWARD AND EXECUTION OF THE LEASE. 



In reference to the letting of this contract, your committee have care- 

 fully examined the evidence submitted to the House of Eepreseutatives 

 by the Committee on Ways and Means at the first session of the Forty- 

 fourth Congress, accompanying the report of said committee made 

 thereon, pursuant to direction of the House : 



To examine into and report whetlier said lease was mafJe and executed in pursuance 

 of law, and whether said lease, as made, was to the best advantage of the United 

 States, according to the ofiers of the bidders. 



As a result of that investigation the Committee of Ways and Means 

 reported that: 



The correspondence between the Secretary of the Treasury and the bidders and the 

 Treasury Dejjartment, together with the contract as made, may be found in Ex. Doc, 

 first session Forty-first Congress, No. 108. The committee in considering the question 

 whether the award to the Alaska Commercial Company was made to the best advant- 

 age of the Uuited States, have been obliged to consider first, whether, admitting 

 that a more favorable offer in money had been made by others, the Treasury Depart- 

 ment could have omitted to respect the clear and palpable discrimination in favor 

 of that company by the act of Cougress. 



The action of the Secretary, based upon opinions of his official legal advisers, ap- 

 pears to conclude this question in the negative. It is very evident that no new and 

 inexperienced parties in the business, nuprovided with the necessary capital, imple- 

 ments, aud knowledge, could have complied with the requirements of the law, which 

 had to be incorporated iuto the contract itself. In order to preserve the fur seals from 

 total annihilation, as has been done in the South Pacific Ocean, and indeed every- 

 where except on a small island belonging to Peru, and two small islands belouging to 

 Russia, none but experienced, judicious, and cautious parties should have been in- 

 trusted with the privilege of killing them. The old fur-seal fisheries have been de- 

 stroyed by the foolish avarice of those who had access to the seals, who, in their thirst 

 for large "immediate gains, have killed in excess of the proper number each season, 

 which led to the eventual extermination of the seals themselves at those points. 



It does not appear that either of the parties who put in bids for this lease had had any 

 experience of the business, or were provided with the necessary facilities for the faith- 

 ful execution of the lease liad it been awarded to them, except the Alaska Commercial 

 Company, whn were the successors of Hutchinson, Kohl & Co., and in possession of 



