FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA, 3 



tacce, as the killiug of females, wbicli are easily mistakoii for yoiiug males even by 

 the natives, would enclauj^er the propagation of the species, and the slaughtering of 

 males under two or over four years old would he a useless extermination, their furs 

 having little value for trade. The sorting once accomplished, all the animals not 

 destined for killing are allowed to escape toward the rookery, and the balance of the 

 herd is driven to the slaughtering grounds, situated near the salt-houses. Great care 

 is taken, when driving, that the animals do not become overheated, for should this 

 happen the skins would become worthless, the fur falling off. On reaching the 

 slaughtering grounds the drove is allowed a rest of two or three hours, after which, 

 at a signal given by ono of the chiefs, the killing is eiTccted with wonderful rapidity. 

 I have seen a drove of sixteen hundred seals dispatched by thirty men in a little rooro 

 than an hour of time. As soon as the animals are killed all available hands, men, 

 women, and children, rush to the work of flensing, wliich has to bo finished as soon as 

 possible to prevent the carcasses from stiffening. Every part of the animal is turned 

 to account; skin, flesh, blubber, and intestines. The skins are immediately taken to 

 the salt-house and i^laced in large vats, the fur side down, and the flesh side plenti- 

 fully sprinkled with salt. When the skins have been thoroughly saturated with salt, 

 which process requires about forty days, they are taken np and shaken ; then another 

 lighter coat of salt is applied, and they are booked up in folds ready for shipment. 



The commercial value of fur-seal skins depends upon their size, and particularly 

 upon the quality of the fur. The greatest proportion of first-class skins are obtained 

 from seals three years old. 



London is the most important and almost the only market for fur-seal skins; there 

 they are manufactured into elegant furs by a series of technical operations, the secret 

 whereof is jealously kept by a single firm. The prices obtained in London by American 

 traders for seal skins shipped m 1867 and 1863 ranged from 16s. to 30s. per skin, ac- 

 cording to quality. The cost of each skin rendered at Lon don, including compensa- 

 tion of natives, expenses for salt, shipment from the islands to San Francisco, transship- 

 ment for Europe, freights, and commissions, amounted to §1.50 in gold. This was the 

 figure of costs when the price paid by the traders to the natives for each skin was nom- 

 inally 20 to 40 cents, but actually less, as the same traders realized on some articles 

 furnished to the natives a profit of nearly 100 per cent. At present, when the 

 Alaska Commercial Company has fixed the price to be paid to the natives at 40 cents 

 per skin, and the advance on San Francisco prices of commodities brought to the isl- 

 ands at only 25 percent., the above figure of costs will be considerably increased. 

 Some increase of costs will be occasioned by the obligations assumed on the part of 

 the company as to the establishment and keeping of gratuitous schools for the natives, 

 as appears from the instructions of tho company to its agents, a copy whereof is here- 

 with submitted. So that in future tho actual cost of each seal skin rendered at Lon- 

 don will amount to not less than $2, exclusive of the pro rata of the rental and the 

 tax imposed by the condition of the lease. 



The fat or blubber of all the seals killed for their skins is not more than sufficient 

 to supply the want of fuel at the islands. Although every chip of drift-wood is care- 

 fully collected by the natives and brought with great pains to the village from tho 

 remotest points, almost all of it is used up in the repairs continually required by the 

 rapidly decaying wood- work of their miserable dwellings, and only a small quantity 

 may be reserved for the purpose of kindling the seal-blubber fires.* 



The summer temperature at the islands being 45° and the mean temperature of the 

 year but 38°, the dwellings, which are nothing better than cellars covered with turf, 

 have to be heated all the year round. Notwithstanding the enormous quantity of 

 seal blubber consumed at the islands, a considerable amount of it might bo converted 

 into seal oil for exportation. Thousands of old bulls, which have become useless for 

 the purposes of propagation and are an incumbrance to the rookeries, might be killed 

 for their blubber, and thus a new and profitablearticlo of trade added to the resources 

 of the islands. Unfortunately, the market price of seal oil is lower than the tax offered 

 on this article by the competitors for the lease of the islands, and consequently this 

 branch of industry has no chance of being developed. 



The population of the islands, numbering 240 on St. Paul and 125 on St. George, 

 are mostly Aleuts, some half-breeds, and a few descendants of Kamchatdales 

 brought over from Kamchatka by tho vessels of the Russian-American Company. 

 Their mother tongue is the Aleutian, a language spoken, with slight variations, 

 all over tho Aleutian Islands and the southeast coast of Alaska peninsula. Tho 

 Russian language is understood by all and intelligently spoken by many. They all 

 belong to the Grseco-Russian Catholic Church and are sincerely attached to their 

 religion. 



According to tho statement of the natives of the islands of St. Paul and St. George 

 a notable improvement in their material welfare has taken jilace since tho transfer of 

 tho Territory to the United Stotes. Still their prosperity is far from being in har- 

 mony with the importance of their share in the production of wealth. Their dwell- 

 jnga— damp, insalubrious hovels, constructed of drift-wood and sods— -are particularly 



