FUE-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 113 



of Alaska, and will also have its herd of seal iutact, provided the Goverument ■will 

 protect the seal in Bering Sea against unlicensed hunters and foreign marauders. 



Immediately upon commencing operations under the lease it was apparent that the 

 interests of tlie Government and those of the company were so intimately interwoven 

 that a policy of entire good faith between the contracting parties was the only one 

 that could be pursued, and so well has this relation been sustained in the eighteen 

 years elapsed since the lease was made, that no word of complaint has ever been 

 uttered on the part of the Government against the company, and no complaint of 

 improper action that has been made by parties inimical to the company has been in 

 the least degree sustained, though twice, because of misrepresentation, the < ompany 

 has been subjected to most rigorous investigation by committees of Congress. The 

 company has received just consideration at the hands of the Government, and though 

 they have suffered to some extent from complications of a political character, arising 

 from the improper acts of crews of foreign and domestic vessels who, in contravention 

 of the laws of the United States have entered upon the waters of the territory and 

 slaughtered malicously the seals, yet they feel assured that the Government will so 

 assert and maintain its rights and authority that no cause of complaint will continue 

 to exist. 



Under Russian rule there were many years of faulty management, and at one time 

 much danger of extermination of seal life at these islands, but in time the company 

 came to regard seal life with so good an eye to preservation and perpetuation that 

 their rules and regulations in regard to these points' are still in force on the islands ; 

 but while they permitted free navigation throughout Bering Sea, they sternly pro- 

 hibited any interference with seal life in the waters thereof, and so the United States 

 Government will be forced to do if it would preserve and perpetuate its i)resent 

 splendid property. 



Until about 1853 the skins shipped by the Russian American Company from these 

 islands, over which they had absolute control, up till the time of the cession to the 

 United States, went forward in the parchment (or dried) state at the rate of about 

 20,000 per annum. About 1853 a small trial shipment of salted skins was shipped in 

 the hands of Messrs. J. M. Oppenheim & Co., London, who had for many years pre- 

 vious been the leading firm who unhaired and dressed fur seals from Lobes Islands, 

 Cape Good Hope, etc. The first experience with salted Alaskas proved a failure, the 

 skins not having been properly cured; by degrees however, the skins came forward 

 in better condition, and in the year 1858 Messrs. Oppenheim contracted with the 

 Russian American Company for an annual supply of from 10,000 to 12,000 salted fur 

 seals at 10s. lOd. per skin, delivered in London. This quantity was increased about 

 the year 1864 to 20,000 per annum, the contract remaining in force until the time 

 when the territory was handed over to the United States Government. In addition 

 to the salted fur seal, Messrs. Oppenheim received annually from the Russian Ameri- 

 can Company about 10,000 parchment fur seal at a price materially below that of the 

 salted skins. Messrs. Oppenheim shipped to the United States the first dressed and 

 dyed Alaska seals about 1860, but their shipments only amounted to a few thousand 

 skins per annum until 1865. From that year until 1872, when this firm was liqui- 

 dated, the quantity shipped by them increased from 2,000 to 3,000 per annum to 

 probably 10,000 skins. 



Such was the state of the trade in fur-seal skins at the time of the lease by the 

 United States Government to the Alaska Commercial Company. Skins were of low 

 value; there were no regular open sales; the dressing and dyeing were badly done, and 

 the net result of sales was insufficient to meet the rental, tax, and charges imposed 

 by the Government on the lessees at the date of the issue of the lease. The company 

 undertook the building up of this business by the introduction of method and system 

 on the islands, in the i)lace of loose and careless management, by careful selection of 

 skins and great attention to the curing of them, and by guarantying regular supply 

 as to quantity and quality to the London market. They were most alily seconded 

 in their efforts by the London house of C. M. Lampson & Co., to whom the ^kins were 

 consigned, and to the critical acquaintance with value of furs to the sound judgment 

 and unsurpassed business ability of the then head of that house, and to the confidence 

 assured to the buyers by his name in connection with the sales the success of the 

 undertaking in London is largely due. Up to the time that this company was formed 

 the dressing of seal was efficiently done only by the firm of Oppenheim & Co., but on. 

 their liquidation there was great danger that tiae business would fall into weak hands 

 and be so badly done as to render the manufactured fur seal unpopular. Realizing 

 this fact, Messrs. Lampson & Co. stepped in, and by liberal inducements led Messrs. 

 Martin & Teichmann to carry on the Alaska factory. 



After a series of difficulties, such as strikes and trouble with the work people, who 

 were determined that no more or better work should be done than of old, this factory 

 has gradually succeeded, by continual improvement, in rendering the dressing and 

 dyeing, formerly a most uncertain undertaking, a thoroughly reliable process. These 

 efforts on the island and in London combined largely account for the measure of suc- 

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