62 FUR SEALS OF ALASKA. 
' This profit of $323,970, divided equally among the Canadian vessels engaged, gives 
each one an average catch of 990 skins and a net gain of $14,086 to each schooner, 
over all expenses. : 
 Norz.—But from this must be deducted the cost of the ‘‘Japanese’’ masquerade. 
How many of these ‘‘Japanese’’ vessels were engaged in helping the 23 Canadian 
vessels above itemized in getting the sum total of 22,812 skins we can not ascertain 
at this hour. It is safe to assume that not less than six or seven such vessels were so 
employed in 1902. The cost of their work to the Victorian combine which orders 
this business and controls it, can not have been less than $60,000. Thissum, deducted 
from the $323,970 above specified, gives beyond all question a net gain of $263,970 to 
the pelagic hunting business at Victoria for the season of 1902. 
The Canadian minister of marine and fisheries made the following official valuation 
of the pelagic fur-sealing fleet of Victoria, British Columbia: 
' [Report for 1900, p. 208, Vol. XXXIV, No. 9, 1900, 63 Victoria, A, 1900; sessional paper No. 1la.] 
Season of 1898: 
Vessels employed in fur sealing, 35; value......-- Straten nated Saabs Js $207, 645 
Boats employed in fur sealing, 102; value....--.-------------------+ 10, 200 
Canoes employed in fur sealing, 326; value........-.-------+-------- 8, 150 
TO Gaile crass iss Gmioannerererancer eames eas berainielemn(aerreee Sa aati, 225, 995 
White sailors and hunters in fleet......-.-------+------------+------ 324 
Tnidian. hunters in fleet... <n... cic see nent sennesccccasie ences: 656 
[Report for 1901, p. 165, Vol. XX XV, No. 9, 1901, 64 Victoria, A, 1901; sessional paper No. 22.] 
Season of 1899: . 
Vessels actually employed in fur sealing, 26; value........----------- $84, 500 
Boats actually employed in fur sealing, 68; value...-....---.-------- 6, 800 
Canoes actually employed in fur sealing, 285; value.........----.---- 14, 250 
Ota access deities eames heeds eee eee sa hamasneoes 105, 550 
White sailors and hunters in fleet ..........-----.-----+------------ 213 
lhidian. bunters:in fleet... .......:.c2¢s8s5 sey see see csa ses eeeud cece cs 607 
Exurst B. 
{Memorandum for Ways and Means Committee, prepared by Henry W. Elliott, March 10, 1904.] 
THE RUSSIAN PERIOD OF GREAT DIMINUTION OF THE PRIBILOF FUR-SEAL HERD, 1834-1844. 
I bring this period in to show that the present logs of life on the fur-seal rookeries 
of the seal islands of Alaska is not the first experience of the kind which has been 
recorded by white men, or, rather, since this life came into the supervision and con- 
trol of white men, in 1786-87; prior to that date these breeding grounds had been 
undiscovered by either savage or civilized men. 
Away back as far as 1820 the Russians themselves recognized the fact that they 
were culling the herds too closely—that they were ruining the business by the land 
killing of all the choice males—they knew that they alone on the islands were to 
blame, because no such thing as hunting fur seals in the water by white men then 
was dreamed of, much less done. 
In 1818, and after a period of over ten, consecutive years of active driving and 
culling out of all the largest and very finest young male seals that could annually be 
secured, the board of directors at St. Petersburg of the Russian-American Company 
were informed by their agent at Sitka that the supply of these large young male 
seals had been practically exhausted, and that a smaller grade of skins must be taken 
or none atall. A trusted associate of the board, General Yanoosky, was sent out by 
them to go to the Pribilof Islands and investigate and report to them what the exact 
status of the herd was. This gentleman did so. He arrived on St. Paul Island in 
the spring of 1819 and remained there during the whole season, until late in Novem- 
ber, when he departed and went down to Sitka, where, on the 25th of February, 1820, 
he finished and forwarded to the board at St. Petersburg his report. A brief of it is 
