122 



THE ASIATIC FUE-SEAL ISLANDS. 



Salted Copper Island fur-seal sTcins sold in London in the years 1870 to 1896. 



Year. 



1870 

 1871 

 1872 

 1873 

 1874 

 1875 

 1876 

 1877. 

 1878 

 1879 

 1880 

 1881 

 1882 

 1883 

 1384 



Year. 



1885 



1886 



1887 



1888 



1889 



1890 



1891 



1893 



1893 



1894 



1895 



1896 



Total 



Skins. 



48, 929 

 41, 752 

 54, 584 



46, 333 



47. 416 

 95, 486 

 17, 025 

 30, 678 

 32, 832 

 27, 298 

 17, 721 

 14, 415 



881, 914 



Average 



price per 



skin. 



s. d. 



37 

 40 

 40 



38 3 

 50 6 

 72 1 

 64 3 

 58 6 

 71 10 

 57 

 54 

 45 2 



STATISTICS. 



Having thus given a brief r^stim<§ of the history of the fur-seal industry on the 

 Eussian side, as it is revealed in the scanty records, it may be well to present, iu 

 chronological order, such statistics as I have been able to bring together showing the 

 number of fur seals taken at various times on the Commander Islands. Unfortunately, 

 many of the figures submitted are only hypothetical, some even highly problematical, 

 but I have accompanied them with a running comment which it is hoped is sufficiently 

 explicit to show how the estimates were made. 



It is not probable that any great slaughter of the fur seals took place during the 

 first period. Bassof and Trapeznikof returned from the Commander Islands in 1746 

 with a cargo of furs, among which are mentioned 2,000 fur seals (Bancroft, Works, 

 XXXIII, p. 100), but in the returns of the other expeditions between 1743 and 1750 no 

 other mention of seal skins is made. As sea otters and blue foxes are mentioned 

 frequently, it is evident that the fur-seal skins were of but little importance and value. 

 It is also probable that in those days only the pups were taken, for it is specifically 

 stated that Yugof's cargo of fur seals, when the vessel returned in 1754 from Copper 

 Island, consisted of 1,765 black pups and 447 gray ones (Neue JSTachr. Neuent. Ins., 

 1776, p. 22). Tolstykh, likewise, in 1750 returned from Bering Island with 840 

 "young fur seal skins or hotiici" {ibid., p. 26), and Yorobief in 1752 is said to have 

 brought to Kamchatka, probably from the Commander Islands, "5,700 black and 1,310 

 gray young fur seals or Icotilci" (ibid., p. 27). Drushinin iu 1755 returned with 2,.50O 

 seals taken on Bering Island [ibid., p. 32). These, as well as the 2,000 brought by the 

 Vlad,imirin.n61 and the 630 in Popof 's Joamw Pretecha in 1772, were also probably young. 



As I have shown elsewhere (Amer. Natural., xxi, Dec, 1887, p. 1053), the sea cow 

 on the Commander Islands had become nearly extinct in 1763. The sea otter had 

 also been killed off there to such an extent that the hunt had become unprofitable, 

 and the blue foxes likewise. As the fur-seal skins were of comparatively little value, 

 there were no inducements for the fur hunters to visit the islands after that time as 

 frequently as before. It is certain enough, as shown above, that the fur seals had not 

 left the Commander Islands, or become nearly extinct there, as alleged by Elliott, as 

 there are records of vessels having actually visited the islands between 1760 and 1786, 

 bringing plenty of seal skins back. As a matter of fact, it was during this very period 

 that the heaviest slaughter of fur seals took place on the Commander Islands. It 



