96 ALASKA. 



or jealous authority that the lessees can and do take thousands 

 of skins in excess of the limit of law, and that this catch in 

 excess is slyly shipped to China and Japan from the islands, &c. 



To show the folly of any such move as this on the part of the 

 company, if even it were possible, I will briefly recapitulate 

 the conditions under which the skins are taken. The natives 

 do all the driving and skinning for the company; no others are 

 permitted or asked to land upon the islands to do this work as 

 long as the inhabitants of the islands are equal to it. Every 

 skin taken by the natives is counted by themselves, as they 

 get forty cents per pelt for the labor ; and at the expiration of 

 every day's labor in the field the natives know exactly how 

 many skins have been taken by them, how many of these skins 

 have been rejected by the company's agent because they were 

 carelessly cut and damaged in skinning, (usually about three- 

 fourths of 1 per cent, of the whole catch,) and they have it re- 

 corded every evening by those among themselves who are spe- 

 cially charged with the duty. Thus, were 150,000 skins taken, 

 or 200,000, the natives would know it as quickly as it was 

 done, and would demand their compensation for the labor; and 

 were any ship to approach the islands at any hour of the dsiy 

 or night, these people would know it at once, and would be 

 aware of any shi^jment of skins that might be attempted. It 

 would be common talk among the three hundred and seventy 

 inhabitants, and thus leave it an open affair to any person who 

 might come upon the ground charged with investigation. 

 These people are constantly going to and from Ounalashka, 

 where they have intimate intercourse with bitter enemies of 

 the company, to whom thej' would not hesitate to tell the whole 

 state of affairs on the islands. Should anything, therefore, be 

 done contrary to the law, the act would be promptly reported 

 by these people, even if the Treasury agents were in collusion 

 with the company, which, however, is simply out of the ques- 

 tion. 



The Treasury agents count these skins into the ship, and one 

 at least of their number goes down to San Francisco upon the 

 vessel, where they are all counted out again by the custom- 

 house officers of that port. Of the one hundred thousand skins 

 annually taken, the company's steamer "Alexander" usually 

 carries down between sixty and seventy thousand, while the 

 balance of the catch are put into the hold of a sailing-vessel 



