FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



145 



American Alaska Commercial Company has paid and pays these same 

 natives to-day, the following showing is made: 



* Under American order. 



t Under Russian order basis of paper rubles in which all payments were then made by the Russian 

 American Company. 



In regard to the supplies furnished these people from the Eussiai 

 company's store, the list was a short one — everything brought up from 

 Sitka. Blankets, woolen cloths and blue cotton, and hemp drilling, 

 handkerchiefs, knitting-yarn and needles, thread, knives, cheap crockery 

 and ironware for domestic use, tea, a very little sugar, a very little flour, 

 no canned goods of any sort, no shoes, no ready-made clothing except 

 Eussian caps, tobacco, and rum. 



Veniaminov says that "these inhabitants subsist principally upon the 

 flush of fur seals and sea-lions, with the addition of roots and a little 

 flour." He also says that these seal-island natives are better paid by 

 the Eussian-American Company than elsewhere in Eussia- America. 



Q. They had no established methods % — A. No, sir ; they did as they 

 pleased. The natives lived in abject poverty. 



Q. What is their condition now as compared with what it was before 

 the acquisition of the territory % — A. Their physical and sanitary con- 

 dition is one of wonderful improvement. Still, the natives would sur- 

 render everything they possess to get strong drink. They would go 

 back into their dirt houses if you gave them liquor. The liquor laws 

 ought to be strictly enforced there. 



(The witness here exhibited pictures showing the houses of the na- 

 tives, the breeding and hauling ground, etc., and, at the suggestion of 

 the chairman, promised to furnish the committee with cuts of them.) 



By the Chairman : 



Q. What is your idea of the value of those rookeries ? — A. I have two 

 plans of valuation. Looking at it with the eyes of a naturalist, it is 

 simply beyond price. Looking at it in a commercial point of view, it is 

 simply a speculative one, and it is therefore impossible to place a jnacti- 

 cal valuation upon it. 



Q. The value would depend upon the preservation of the herd f — ^A. 

 I presume so, entirely, coupled with the condition of the fur market of 

 the world at the time. 



Q. If we let the balance of mankind go into Bering Sea and spread 

 their nets across these great lines of returning seals, we will soon lose 

 them?— A. Exactly. 



Q. But under a system of protection of the herds upon the rookeries, 

 and in the open sea, what would you estimate would be the commercial 

 value of the rookeries and the herds'? — A. My estimate would be a 

 speculative one. It may be that this year I would make an estimate 

 based on the present trade, and next year on this basis I would be 

 obliged to make an estimate that might be entirely different. 



Q. What is the present value?— A. I think the gross value of the 

 surplus bachelor seals of the Pribylov rookeries to-day would be 

 $2,000,000. The bachelors are the only killable seals. I do not in 

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