IV FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



seems to be to grant the exclusive privilege of taking these animals to a responsible 

 company for a series of years, limiting the number of skins to be taken annually by 

 stringent provisions. A royalty or tax might be imposed upon each skin taken, and 

 a revenuo be thus secured aullicient to pay a large pare of the expense of the Terri- 

 tory. 



Hon. C. A. Williams, of New Loudon, Conn., one of the principal share- 

 lioldcrs in the Ahiska Commercial Company, \yho has' been eng-aged in 

 the. business of whaling aud seal-huutiug as the successor of his father 

 and grandfather in that pursuit, was called before the committee, and 

 testified to facts from his own experience aud that of his house j he 

 said : 



The history of sealing goes back to about 1790, and from that to the early part of 

 this century. 



In the earlier period of which I speak there were no seals known in the North Pacific 

 Oceaa. Their particular haunt was the South Atlantic. They were discovered by 

 Cook, in his voyages, on the island of Desolation, by Widdall, in his voyages to the 

 south pole, on the island of South Georgia aud Saudwichland, and by later voyagers, 

 whose names escape me, in the islands of the South Pacific Ocean. When the number 

 of seals on those islands were first brought to the notice of British merchants they 

 pursued the hunting of these animals on the islajid of Desolation. 



The most authentic authority we have about the matter is derived from reports 

 made by these voyagers as to the number of seals taken from those places, and al- 

 though they are not entirely accurate, I think they are fully as accurate as could be 

 expected, considering the lapse of time. On the island of Desolation it is estimated 

 that 1,200,000 fur seals were taken ; from the Island of South Georgia a like number 

 were taken, and from tho island of Messafuero probably a greater number weretaktjii. 

 As to the Saudwichland the statistics are not clear, but there can be no doubt that 

 over half a million seals were takeu from that locality, and in 1820 the islands of South 

 Shetland, south of Cape Horn were discovered, and from these islands 320,000 fur seal 

 were taken in two years. There were other localities from which seals were taken, 

 but no others where they were found in such large numbers. The market for fur seals 

 in those days was China. The trade which the British and Americans had with China 

 was very much against them because of the high rates of exchange upon the coin. 



In the trade with China some exchangeable medium was necessary, aud they found 

 in the fine furs of various kinds, particularly the fur seal aud sea otter, a good medium 

 of exchange. These skins of wliich I have spoken were sent mostly to China, although 

 some portions went to England and France aud Germany, and were exported from 

 there to Russia. They were used in the manufacture of caps and capes and small ar- 

 ticles of that character. The Chinese used them for lining garments and making 

 dresses of luxury and comfort for their mandarins. The market price for these skins 

 in China, as nearly as can be found now, was $4 to $d, but it often happened that 

 when there was a large quantity in the market the price of skins wns depressed, so 

 that they would bring scarcely 50 cents apiece. Captain Delano carried a cargo of 

 38,000 skins to China and sold them for $10,000, which shows the result of a depressed 

 market and the uncertainty of all ventures of that sort. The trade went on until 

 these localities were all exhausted of their fur-bearing animals. Then the trade went 

 into a state of desuetude, and was ended. There were a few skins brought in from 

 the Cape of Good Hope occasionally, but I do not think they averaged 1,000 skins a 

 year from all these places. 



The cause of the extermination of seals in those localities was the indiscriminate 

 character of the slaughter. Sometimes as many as fifteen vessels would be hanging 

 around these islands awaiting opportunity to get their catch, and every vessel would 

 be governed by individual interests. They would kill everything that came in their 

 way that furnished a ski u, whether a cow, a l)ull, or a middle-grown seal, leaving 

 the young jiups just born to die from neglect aud starvation. It was like taking a 

 herd of cattle and killing all the bulls and cows and leaving the calves. The exter- 

 mination was so complete in these localities that the trade was exhausted, and voy- 

 agi^s to those places were abandoned. About 1870, nearly fifty years after the dis- 

 covery of the South Shetland Islands, when the occupation of Alaska by the cession 

 of Russia to the United States of the Bering Sea was brought about 



The Chairman. I want to interrupt you to ask a question bearing on that point. 

 Were those rookeries in the South Seas never under the protectorate of any govern- 

 ment at all ? 



The Witness. Never. I was going to say that wh n the cession was made by Rus- 

 sia to the United States of this territory, and the subject of the value of fur seals, or 

 the possible value, was brought to mind, i> 'oplo who had 1)i'a3u previously engaged 

 in that business revisited these southern localities, after a lapse of nearly tifty years, 

 and no soals were found on th;; island of Dosolatiou. These islands have been used 



