FUli-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 13 



tlie iiewboru seals Avould be exposed of being carried off by the sea 

 before tbey bave learued to liv^e in that element. From the time of 

 their settling on the rookeries to tlie epoch of the appearance of the 

 females the balls slee]) almost withont interruption. Towards the end 

 of May they begin to look oat for the coming of their families. The 

 hunting begins as soon as the resting grounds are fully occupied, which 

 generally happens about the end of June. It is carried on until the 

 middle of November, when the seals leave the islands to disappear for 

 five months in the vast expanse of the Pacific. The end of the season 

 can not be stated otherwise than approximately. Sometimes it will be 

 two weeks later and sometimes it will be two weeks earlier. I should 

 say the latest average is about November 15. 



Q. What are the opportunities for fraud upon the Government in th(^ 

 taking and counting of fur skins? Is there any opportunity for seals 

 to be taken without the knowledge of the agents; taken from these 

 islands and seas about the islands ? — A. I do not know. No consider 

 able number. Of course, a couple of skins might be smuggled by the 

 cook of the ship in his locker, and nobody would know that. But 1 

 think the unite would look sharply after that, and he is instructed by 

 the company to look after that sharply. 



Q. Is there, in your oi)inion, any opportunity for the company itself, 

 on that plan, to r)ractice large frauds upon the Government in taking 

 skins and smuggling them away from there? — A. I do not think it 

 would be practicable, even if they wanted to do it. There are too many 

 people looking after that. I could imagine a collusion between the 

 company and the Government oOicers, but that is a very wild scheme 

 to imagine. Some one might refuse to enter into the scheme, and some 

 one entering into it might quarrel afterwards and turn state's evidence. 

 It is very dangerous, and I do not think there is any inducement. I 

 do not know of a single man Avho would enter into any such condition. 

 There is no inducement for the com]iany doing it. There is no human 

 l)ossibility for there being any inducement or any reason for their 

 doing it. 



Q. In other words, you do not think it would be to their interest *? — 

 A. Not at all ; it would be to their interest to pay for more skins, rather 

 than to save taxes on a few odd thousands at a great risk and peril. 



By Mr. Jeffries: 



Q. Of what country are you a native? — A. I am a native of Eussia. 



Q. Of course you speak the Eussian language, and read and write it, 

 that being your native language ? — A. I speak Eussian as perfectly as I 

 spoke it twenty years ago. 



Q. How long Avere you on the islands of St. Paul and St. George ? — A. 

 Three months on one and nine on the other. I was about one year 

 on the two islands. 



Q. You went. up as an agent of the Treasury Department? — A. Yes. 

 I was not officially styled agent. I was a clerk in the Secretary's oflice 

 detailed from the Department to assist the agent. 



Q. What time in 1870 did you go up ? — A. In July. 



Q. That was at the beginning of the operations of the Alaska Com- • 

 pany under its lease? — A. That was before. When I sailed there was 

 no law and no lease. I went under the orders of the Secretary to see 

 that the law prohibiting the killing of the animals was enforced. 



Q. As I understand it, there had been an order of the Treasury De- 

 partment forbidding the killing of fur seals, and the natives were in 

 straits for food, and that was what you referred to in an answer to a 



