FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 99 



in fact. These people had a fancy for punching holes in the coin and 

 then to string it upon their necks. They have a fancy to stamp an image 

 upon their coin to make a charm in various ways ; so the silver coin 

 which is in circulation there get more or less marked. Wherever such 

 coin has come into the stores of this company it has been their unvary- 

 ing custom to put it aside, and when a sufficient collection was made to 

 bring it to San Francisco and sell the coin to the mint for bullion, in 

 order to get that class of coin out of the country. The idea of the com- 

 pany marking the coin for any purpose is absurd. 



Q. Now 1 will call your attention to the trade in seal skins for the 

 market, and in that connection, so the committee may understand, I 

 will ask you to read the paper I have here. Did you prepare this pa- 

 per yourself entirely "? — A. I did, and will now read it as part of my 

 testimony. 



Estimate of number aud value of dyed aud dressed Alaska fur seal skins shipped from 

 London to New York from 1872 to 1887, inclusive : 



Number of skins in sixteen years 825, 000 



Value, £3,253,941, at $4.80 $15,618,916 



Duty on valuation, at 20 per cent 3,123,783 



Average duty collected per annum 195, 236 



Average rental and tax 317, 500 



Average annual Government income from Alaskan seal skins 512, 736 



In the sixteen years above noted the United States Government has 

 received from Alaska seal skins from above sources 8, 203, 776 



The sole hazard the Government encounters in this business is the 

 possible loss of its herd of seals, either from its own negligence and 

 want of proper precaution in protecting them or from the outbreak of 

 some disease that might diminish their numbers. The Government 

 embarked in this business the capital sum it paid for the whole Terri- 

 tory- of Alaska. It has already been repaid this sum and more, and it 

 has remaining the Territory of Alaska, with, in the words of the pres- 

 ent governor, "her many varied and, as I believe, incomparably great 

 natural resources to represent the investment of cai)ital " first made. 



The company has to care for the natives and pay a rental of $55,000 

 per annum whether it takes a single seal skin or not. It has the hazard 

 of the voyage to San Francisco ; that of ordinary railroad transit across 

 the continent, and, superadded, the danger of skins heating, and spoil- 

 ing thereby ; the hazard of the voyage across the Atlantic and the rail- 

 road risk from Liverpool to London, and always the danger from fire. 

 It has to keep ever in mind the realization that failure to deliver in 

 London the regular supply of skins in sound condition and at usual 

 dates, exposed as the skins are to all the risks above mentioned and to 

 others not enumerated, would entail a loss to them not alone of money, 

 but of grip and hold on the business, that years of patient and unre- 

 munerative labor would hardly restore ; and now it has to place on the 

 market, after all these chances and charges, in competition with skins 

 taken by unlicensed hunters and foreign marauders, who pay neither 

 rental nor tax, and who kill an average of at least seven seals to save 

 one skin, and have no more care for the Aleuts than they have for the 

 seal that they so mercilessly shoot or spear. The company could not 

 aftbrd to add a single risk to those they now bear, and if they can not 

 have the prestige and partnership of the Government to the limited ex- 

 tent now accorded them, they would jjrefer to withdraw their capital 

 and apply their energies in other channels. These skins have no com- 



