112 FUK-SEAL FISHERIES OP ALASKA. 



Eussia, together with and a part of Alaska. So exhaustive an account of these 

 islands and their seal life has been given by Mr, H. W. Elliott, special agent of 

 Treasury Department in 1874, and since intimately connected with the Smithsonian 

 Institution, which account has been made a part of Tenth Census report, that it would 

 be intrusive here to attempt to supplement aught, and therefore only generalizations 

 based on said report and such statements of lite and procedure on the islands to-day 

 are presented as may be pertinent in this connection . 



These islands are places of annual resort for the largest herd of fur seal the world 

 has ever known, and the only one of great importance now existing. After most care- 

 ful examination Mr. Elliott estimated their numbers at over 4,500,000. After a thor- 

 ough study of the influences which act for or against the increase or diminution of 

 the life of this vast body, taking into account the killing of 100,000 annually for 

 their skins, Mr. Elliott says, '' I have no hesitation in saying quite confidently that 

 underthe present rules and regulations governing the sealing interests on these islands, 

 the increase or the diminution of the life will amount to nothing; that the seals will 

 continue for all time in about the same number and condition." It goes without say- 

 ing that if new influences for destruction are brought in, seal life would be dimin- 

 ished in proportion to the eS'ectiveness of said influences. 



It is safe to say that these animals are all United States property, having been 

 bom on United States soil and reared in United States waters in the twenty-one 

 years that have elapsed since the cession of Alaska by Russia, and having the in- 

 stinct of regular return to their home, which accords them a status in law, they 

 would seem to be entitled to the protection of their Government while they are in 

 the acknowledged boundaries of their country. 



The right to take 100,000 seal skins annually from these islands, under certain 

 stipulated restrictions, is leased by the Government of the United States to an asso- 

 ciation of American citizens known as the Alaska Commercial Company. The com- 

 pany pays a rental of $55,000 per annum and $2.62| per skin, a total of $317,500 per 

 annum, for this right. They are also obligated to a certain care of the Aleuts inhab- 

 iting the islands and to a partial provision for their needs, both mental and physical. 



They pay to these Aleuts 40 cents per skin, or $40,000 per annum, for their services 

 in taking the skins. They have also built for them a church and school-house, and 

 maintain teachers and physicians on the islands. 



At the time of the cession of Alaska to the United States these people were living in 

 huts, or more properly holes in the ground, and had no ambitions or aspirations be- 

 yond supporting their daily existence in a painful and laborious way. Now they are 

 living in frame houses provided for them by the company, and have accumulated sav- 

 ings, invested in United States bonds in San Francisco, amounting, on August 1, 1887, 

 to $94,128.28. It is safe to say that no laboring men within the boundaries of the 

 United States are better paid or better cared for. 



As to the manner in which the 100,000 seals, which furnish the annual quota of skins, 

 are taken, Mr. Elliott says, " By reference to the habits of the fur seal it is plain that 

 two-thirds of all the males that are born (and they are equal in number to the females 

 born) are never permitted by the remaining third, strongest by natural selection, to 

 land upon the same ground with the females, which always herd together en masse. 

 Therefore this great band of bachelor seals, or ' hollus chickie,' is compelled, when 

 it visits land, to live apart entirely, miles away frequently, from the breeding grounds, 

 and in this admirably perfect manner of nature are those seals which can be properly 

 killed without injury to the rookeries selected and held aside so that the natives can 

 visit and take them, as they would so many hogs, without disturbing in the slightest 

 degree the peace and quiet of the breeding grounds where the stock is perpetuated.'^ 



In this connection it is proper to note that the company are not allowed to take any 

 seal in the water, nor to make any use of fire-arms in their capture. And it will at 

 once be perceived that if the seal in Bering Sea are harassed and captured by means 

 of fire-arms, spears, or drag-nets, the routine of their lives is interfered with, their 

 habits broken up, females with young killed, and such general disturbance caused 

 that those not slaughtered will seek other hauling places and the United States thus 

 lose their sole source of income from Alaska, as well as the control they now enjoy of 

 a valuable trade ; and the impoveri3hed Aleuts, who have no other means of gain 

 open to them, would become a burden on the nation, instead of being the self-sup- 

 porting and self-respecting citizens they now are. Indeed, it was predicted by Rus- 

 sian authorities, conversant with seal life, at the time of the cession of the Terri- 

 tory that the reckless and indiscriminate killing of seal by the Americans would soon 

 drive the Prybilov herd to the Russian islands, and that thus they (the Russians) 

 would regain and retain all that was most valuable in the ceded territory. But the 

 wisdom of Congress, appreciating the value of the islands as seal rookeries, was shown 

 by legislative acts protecting the animal, and by leasing the right to take skins under 

 restrictions to a responsible association of American citizens, with the result that at 

 the expiration of a twenty -years' lease the United States Government will from it» 

 proceeds be fully re-imbursed for the outlay for the purchase of the entire territory 



