SEAL SKINS FROM COMMANDER ISLANDS. 



127 



There are a number of published statements referring to the seal catch on the 

 Commander Islands since 1871, but none of them are complete, nor are the figures 

 given for the separate islands. The figures also vary to some extent, for several 

 reasons. In some cases the Tiuleni Island skins have been counted in with those of 

 the Commander Islands. Thus, in Capt. G. Mebaum's statement (Fur Seal Arb., iii, 

 p. 204), by inadvertence the number of killed seals for 1890, 53,780, includes 1,456 

 skins from Tiuleni, the total for the Commander Islands being only 52,324. Many 

 other discrepancies are explained by the fact that the various figures refer to various 

 counts. Some may and do refer to skins shipped, others to seals killed, others to 

 skins accepted and paid for. The almost unavoidable difference in the counting of 

 such large quantities of skins is manifest when we remember that the skins are first 

 counted at the salt house and thon again as they go over the ship's side into the hull. 

 Upon these counts the official Government statement is made up. The skins are 

 then unloaded in Petropaulski, again loaded into the steamer, and again unloaded 

 and counted in San Francisco. It is, therefore, not to be expected that lists made 

 up from the various figures in the island count, the ship's count, and the custom- 

 house count would agree exactly. The figures given in the following table are based 

 chiefly upon the various station journals as well as the ships' logs, partly upon the 

 figures already published and partly upon a list showing the number of seals shipped 

 between 1883 and 1891 from Bering and Copper islands separately, kindly furnished 

 by Mr. Max Heilbronner, of the Alaska Commercial Company: 



2fwml>er of fur-seal skins shipped from Commander Islands and Bohben Island from 1871 to 1897, inclusive. 



* Of these, Hutchinson, Kobl, Philippeus & Co. shipped 4,069 ; the Eussian Seal Skin Co. shipped 13,825. 

 t Of these, Hutchinson, Kohl, Philippeus & Co. shipped 1,741 ; the Kussian Seal Skin Co. shipped 16,324. 



To this total should be added 416 skins taken from the schooner J. H. Lewis, 

 seized in 1891, and 2,152 skins taken in 1892 from the seized schooners, which obtained 

 them chiefly off Copper Island. The latter skins were sold by the Russian Govern- 

 ment, part in Petropaulski (1,124), part in London, and were shipped in the company's 

 steamer to San Francisco (see Fur Seal Arb., vir, pp. 375, 417). The total number 

 of skins shipped from the Russian seal islands from 1871 to 1896, inclusive, is, 

 therefore, 933,553. 



That this list does not give an accurate idea of the number of seals killed in each 

 particular year is clear from the fact that the fall catch of the year is not shipped 

 until the following summer. In some years there was no fall catch at all; in others it 

 was very considerable. Thus, for instance, in 1871, the first year of the lease of 



