120 THE ASIATIC FUE-SEAL ISLANDS. 



presented to nearly all the families on both islands commodious frame houses, mostly 

 with 4 rooms, similarly built, the natives receiving full title to them. 



By careful management the seal rookeries, which at the beginning of the com. 

 pany's term scarcely yielded 30,000 skius annually, toward the end produced about 

 50,000 a year, the annual average between 1880 and 1889 being nearly 45,000. Among 

 the entries in the diaries of the company's agents during this period are many like 

 the following: "JS^atives say there are a good many female seals this year, and 

 holostiaks, too" (Bering Island, July 23, 1877). "Assistant Starshena (chief) has been 

 on south rookery; reports that both holostiaks and females are double in quantity 

 as has been before, but not many old bulls. On the north rookery there are more 

 seals, too" (Bering Island, August 12, 1877.) "Natives report good many thousand 

 seals more this year than ever before" (Bering Island, August 2, 1880). 



The lease of Hutchinson, Kohl, Philippeus & Co. expired in February, 1891, and 

 as the new lease was awarded to a new company, the old company's steamer Alelc- 

 sander II was sent early in the year to take off the fall catch of 1890, consisting of 

 5,800 skins. 



The new company, into the hands of which the sealing industry of the Com- 

 mander Islands and Tiuleni now passed, was incorporated in St. Petersburg under 

 the name "Russkoye Tovarishtchestvo Kotikovikh Promislof,"' or the "Russian 

 Seal Skin Company," as the name of the firm is officially rendered in English. 



By the new contract, which is only for 10 years from February 19, 1891, to 

 February 19, 1901 (old style),^ the mutual relationship of the Government, the natives, 

 and the company was materially changed, considerable power being placed in the 

 hands of the administrator, while the direct dealings of the company with the natives 

 were greatly reduced. The gradual americanization of the natives under the regime 

 of Hutchinson, Kohl, Philippeus & Co. was undoubtedly distasteful to at least one of 

 the inspectors, whose opinion with the St. Petersburg authorities must have been of 

 great weight, as there is now a manifest tendency toward a rerussiflcation of the 

 business and its methods. 



The tax to be paid for skins was raised considerably. Under the present contract 

 the company pays to the Russian Government 10.38 "metallic" rubles (gold) per skin 

 taken, one-half to be paid in St. Petersburg in the month of May, in advance of the 

 sealing season. This advance payment, from 1891 to 1894, was made on a basis of 

 50,000 skins to be taken. In the meantime Russia had agreed with England not to 

 take more than 30,000 skins a year; hence from 1895 the advance payment was made 

 on a basis of only 30,000 skins. The other half is paid at the end of the season, when 

 the amount of the catch is known. The amount which the Russian Government pays 

 the natives for their work, 1.50 rubles per skin, is usually paid at the islands by the 

 company at the end of the season and deducted from the draft of the balance due in 

 St. Petersburg. It will be seen that by this arrangement the Russian Government is 

 amply protected, but in addition the company is obliged to deposit Imperial Russian 

 bonds with the Government in St. Petersburg to an amount equaling that of the 

 advance payment. 



' Russian Company for Fur-Seal Hunting (lit. transl.). 



2The text of the contract with the title Kontrakt na sdatchuf arendn " BussTcomu TovarisUchestvu 

 Kotikovikh Fromislof" pushnikli promislof na Oetrovakh Jiomanddorskikh i Tiuleniem has been separately 

 printed. Fol. 4 pp. Tipografia Y. KirscMauma [St, Petevshurg] ,— Also in Savitch, Otchet, App. No. 7. 



