26 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 
THE HERD AT THE CLOSE OF RUSSIAN CONTROL. 
Under these gradually perfected methods of operation the herd seems to have 
prospered and increased so that in the year 1864, as we learn from the instructions* 
to the agents of the Russian-American Company on the islands it was considered 
possible to take annually 70,000 seals on St. Paul Island alone. The number for 
St. George Island is not given. This in brief is the condition of the fur-seal herd as it 
came into the possessiontof the United States. In definite facts and data there is but 
little; but it may be taken for granted in the light of subsequent events that the herd 
was in a condition of normal increase. 
THE INTERREGNUM. 
The year 1868, or the season following the transfer of Alaska from Russian to 
American control, is generally known as the “interregnum.” It was impossible 
immediately to provide an administrative system for the Territory, and a period of 
lawlessness reigned on the islands. The state of affairs is thus described by Prof. 
William H. Dall,j who visited the islands during the year: 
PROFESSOR DALL’S NOTES. 
During my visit to St. George Island in 1868, this vast territory of Alaska had just fallen into 
the possession of the United States, and the Government had not yet fairly established more than a 
beginning of an organization for its management as a whole, without mentioning such details as the 
Pribilof Islands. In consequence of this state of affairs private enterprise, in the form of companies 
dealing in furs, had established numerous sealing stations on the islands. During my stay, except on 
« single occasion, the driving from the hauling grounds, the killing, and skinning was done by the 
natives in the same manner as when under the Russian rule, each competing party paying them so 
much per skin for their labor in taking them. Despite the very bitter and more or less unscrupulous 
competition among the various parties, all recognized the importance of preserving the industry and 
protecting the breeding grounds from molestation, and for the most part were guided by this 
conviction. 
THE NUMBER OF SEALS KILLED. 
During this year a very great number of seals were killed on theislands. Estimates 
vary, but it is evident that the number amounted to not far from 300,000. As this 
subject has been frequently referred to and strenuous efforts made to connect the 
heavy killing of this year with the subsequent decline of the herd, we feel justified 
in quoting here at length the statement of Mr. Osborne Howes, now editor of the 
Boston Herald, who spent the summer of 1868 on St. George Island as agent of one 
of the companies. He says: 
MR. HOWES’S NOTES. 
I left San Francisco early in March on board a schooner cleared by Messrs. Parrott & Co., of 
that city, for a trading voyage in Bering Sea and the coast of Kamchatka. Our schooner put into 
Sitka on the way up and took on board a number of natives, sailing from Sitka to the Shumagin 
Islands and thence into Bering Sea. It was the first vessel to reach the island, arriving at St. George 
in the latter part of April. I was landed with the goods, and the schooner continued her voyage 
toward the coast of Kamchatka. I immediately secured possession of the salt house and the services 
of the natives for the season. 
* Appendix to case of U. S., Fur Seal Arb., Letter No. 31, p. 89. 
t Fur Seal Arb., vol. 2, p. 132. 
