50th Congress, I UOUSE OF KEPRESEXTATIVES. ) Report 

 2d Session. ) \ No. 3883. 



FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



January 21), 1889. — Recommitted and ordered to be printed. 



Mr. Dunn, from the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, sub- 

 mitted the following 



EEPORT: 



[To accompany bill H, R. 12432. J 



The committee was directed to '' investigate the fur-seal fisheries of 

 Alaska and all contracts or leases made by the Government with any 

 person or companies for the taking of far seals or other fur-bearing 

 animals in Alaska; the character, duration, and condition of such con- 

 tracts or leases ; and whether and to what extent the same have been 

 enforced and complied with or violated ; the receipts therefrom, and tbe 

 expenses incurred by the Government on account of any such contract 

 or leases ; and to fally investigate and report upon the nature and ex- 

 tent of the lights and interests of the United Slates in the fnr seals and 

 other fisheries in the Bering Sea in Alaska ; whether and to what ex- 

 tent the same have been violated, and by whom ; and what, if any, leg- 

 islation is necessary for the better protection and preservation of the 

 same." 



FIRST.— AS TO THE SEAL FISHERIES. 



The fur-seal rookeries of Alaska are located on tbe PribJ-lov group 

 of islands, situate near the center of that part of Bering Sea lying 

 within the boundary of the territory ceded by the Emperor of Russia 

 to the United States. 



The island of St. Paul has an area of 33 square miles, and St. George, 

 27 square miles. 



Lieutenant I\Iayuard, U. S. Navy, who was detailed by the Secretary, 

 pursuant to the act of April li-5, 1874, to inquire into the condition of 

 the seal-tisberies in Alaska, in his report says (Executive Document 

 No. 43, first session Forty-fourth Conyress) : 



Tbey (the seal islands) are euveloped iu summer by dense fogs, tlirougb which the 

 8U11 rarely makes its way, and are surrounded in winter by tields of ice driven down 

 from the Arctic by northern gales. They have no sheltered harbors, but slight in- 

 dentations in the shore line afford a lee for vessels and a tolerable landing-place for 

 boats iu certaiu winds. The shores are bold and rocky, with strips of saud-beach 

 aud slopes covered with broken rocks, at intervals between the cliffs, and the inte- 

 rior of both is brokeii aud hilly ; neither tree nor shrub grows upon them, but they 

 are covered with grass, moss, and wild flowers. For nearly one hundred years fur 

 seals have been known to visit them annually in great numbers for the purpose of 

 bringing forth and rearing their young, which circumstance gives them no inconsid- 

 erable commercial importance. Tlie seals occupy the islands from the breaking away 

 of the ire in the spring until it surronnil-t i lion .again iii the early winter; that is, 

 from alidut the miiUllo f)f Mav nn*^il DeccniljiT. 



