LEASES OF THE FUR SEAL ISLANDS. 29 
THE FIRST LEASE. 
Under the terms of this lease the company were given the right to take 100,000 
male seals over one year of age during the months of June, July, September, and 
October of each year. In 1874, by act of Congress, the number of seals to be taken 
and the time of sealing was made subject to the control of officers of the Treasury 
Department, and killing after August 1 was limited to the necessities of the food supply 
of the natives. The use of firearms or of other methods of killing, tending to drive 
the seals away, was prohibited, as was also the killing of the animals in the water. 
In consideration for the skins so taken the lessees. agreed to pay to the Treasury 
of the United States an annual rental of $55,000 for the islands, and a revenue tax of 
$2.625 on each skin taken and shipped by them. In addition they were to furnish 
free of charge to the inhabitants of the islands each year 25,000 dried salmon, 60 cords 
of firewood, and a sufficient quantity of salt and preserved meats. The company was 
also to satntatte a school on each island for at least eight months of the year, and 
were forbidden to sell any distilled spirits or spirituous liquors. 
THE NORTH AMERICAN COMMERCIAL COMPANY. 
Under the provisions of this lease the affairs of the islands were conducted until 
the close of the season of 1889, when it expired. The Treasury Department again 
advertised for bids and again leased the islands for a term of twenty years to a new 
company, the North American Commercial Company, their offer having been accepted 
as most advantageous to the Government. 
THE PRESENT LEASE. 
The new lease differs-from the old to the advantage of the Government in the 
following points: The rental of the islands is fixed at $60,000. The tax of each skin 
is $9.624. Eighty tons of coal are furnished the natives. The quantity of salmon, 
salt, and other provisions to be furnished can be fixed by the Secretary of the 
Trensuny: The company furnishes free dwellings, churches, physicians, medicines, 
employment to the natives, and cares for the aged, the widows, and the orphans. 
The quota was fixed at 60,000 for the first year, and has since been subject to the 
regulation of the Secretary of the Treasury. 
THE DECLINE IN THE BACHELOR HERD. 
During the‘ closing years of the lease of the Alaska Commercial Company a 
marked decrease in the fur-seal herd had begun to be noted. In the opening year of 
the new company’s lease the depleted condition of the herd became apparent in the 
reduction to one-fifth in the original quota of 100,000 skins. Various factors entered: 
into this decline, which it is not necessary here to discuss fully. These, as well 
as the original cause of decrease in the herd, were at best but imperfectly understood 
at the time. 
LAND AND SEA KILLING. 
To make the matter clear in the briefest possible space, at this point it is necessary 
to review somewhat the history of the herd. Conjointly with the killing on land, as 
practiced by the Russians and Americans, there had been going on from time imme- 
morial killing of another sort now known as pelagic sealing. This was carried on at 
