92 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



Q. You would rely upon Mr. Sloss's statement, would you not ?— A. I 

 would rely upon it from my own knowledge, extending- thirty years. 



Mr. Jeffries. Here is a reply of Mr. aioss, wbich Mr. Sioss makes 

 under his signature, to a statement of Governor Swineford, who has 

 criticised the company. He had been misinformed by some of the peo- 

 ple and wrote some criticisms upon the company, and Mr. 81os.s made a 

 reply. I ask you if you believe any statement lie would put his name 

 to is entitled to be believed ?— A. 1 should not hesitate so far as any- 

 tliing- which came within his knowledge was concerned, and 1 should 

 place implicit reliance upon it. I think he would be very careful not 

 to state anything that he did not know. ' 



Mr. Jeffries. Now, Mr. Williams, that company, after it commenced 

 operations under this contract with the Government, also made a con- 

 tract with liussia — substantially the same company, perhaps under a 

 different name — for the control of some rookeries in Bering- ^ea, in Kus- 

 sian waters. — A. An association known as Hutchinson, Kohl & Co., in 

 San Francisco, of w^hich 1 was a member, obtained from the Eussian 

 Government a lease to the islands of Copper and Bering-, on the coast 

 of Kamchatka, for the purpose of taking seal skins from there. We 

 operated at lirst, I think, two years, and we also operated the American 

 lease, and realized at llie expiration of the two years that the interests 

 of the stockholders of the American lease were somewhat injured by 

 the separate operation of the Russian lease as it was held ; and there- 

 fore at that time — I think it was the second year — we arranged with 

 tlie Alaska Commercial Company the privileges of that lease for the 

 term of their lease, in order that the whole operation might come under 

 one management, and that the influences upon the market might not be 

 adverse, the one to the other. 



Q. In keeping the accounts and the management of the business, 

 they are distinct and separate"^ — A. Entirely. 



Q. Now, how are you protected by the Russian Government? Are 

 tliere depredators about those islands f — A. There have been attempted 

 depredations ; but the Russian Government has a rather jjositive way 

 of their own, and the marauders do uot fare well with these people, and 

 they sehlom repeat their efforts. They have about these waters gen- 

 erally a Russian vessel cruising up the Siberian coast, and the people 

 are warned that if they still presist in poaching and are taken they will 

 be summarily dealt with. 



Q. In former times, when whaling was carried on in the Arctic, did 

 parties passing up and along the Kamchatka coast undertake to do 

 any sealing or anything of that sort ? — A. No. The Russians i)rotect 

 that coast. Although there was a while ago a large fleet of American 

 whalemen who passed through Bering Sea to the Arctic, there was 

 never any attempt to molest the seals, either in the water or on the 

 laud. 



Q. Was it then regarded as Russian waters by sea faring men — I 

 mean the Bering sea '^— A. It was. 



Q. So far as you know, did Russia then and ever since exercise 

 dominion over those waters? — A. Bering Sea? Oh, decidedly. She 

 allowed a free passage to the Arctic through those waters so long as 

 there was no interference with her seal interests. 



Q. Was Ruvssia, to your knowledge, in the habit of granting permis- 

 sion to vessels to visit certain points on the coast of Bering Sea, or 

 were they allowed to land without permission? — A. They were allowed 

 to land on the northern coast without any permission. Above Norton 



