order but the treasury was empty" (Okun 1951:225). 



A colorful account of the Pribilof Islands during the Rus- 

 sian regime was written by Fredericka Martin (1946a). She ar- 

 rived at St. Paul on 25 June 1941 and left during the military 

 evacuation of early summer 1942. She later made an intensive 

 search of early literature on the development of the sealskin in- 

 dustry and the history of the Pribilof "natives." 



In 1799, competing traders were sent away from the Prib- 

 ilofs and the islands passed under the autocratic control of 

 Alexander Baranov. "In 1803, after the slaughter had beer 

 conducted for some years without regard to the market, an ac- 

 cumulation of 800,000 skins was found in the storehouses on 

 the islands, 700,000 of which were thrown into the sea as 

 worthless" (Mclntyre 1870:16). "In early times" the sealskins 

 were not salted but were cured by air drying, pegged out on the 

 ground or hung on racks near the killing fields (Elliott 

 1887:369). "The skins were taken from the animals and dried 

 and shipped as goat skins now are. When they arrived in Lon- 

 don they had to be softened again It was not until some- 

 where in the fifties that the first shipment of salted skins took 

 place, and it was considered a failure in London; but after 

 some further trial, the house of Oppenheim was satisfied that 

 salted shipments made better fur, and they made contract with 

 the Russian Fur Company for fur seal salted, at 14 shillings" 

 [about $2 in 1964], (U.S. Congress, House 1889:78). 



Nikolai Rezanov arrived at St. Paul in July 1805 and found 

 evidence of appalling waste in the killing of seals. Noting that 

 "over a million had already been killed [since 1786?]," he 

 ordered all sealing stopped (Bancroft 1886:446). In 1806-07 

 nearly all the Aleuts were removed to Unalaska. In 1808 seal 

 killing began again, with the help of laborers mainly from Un- 

 alaska and adjacent villages. On St. Paul Island the Aleuts 

 were draw : n together and huddled into one settlement at Half- 

 way Point (Lembkey 191 Id: 1038). At the beginning of 1819 

 the population of the Pribilofs included: 27 Russian men, 379 

 Aleuts, and no "Creoles" (Tikhmenev 1861-63, part 1, p. 306 

 of transl.). 



From the account of missionary Innokenty Veniaminov 

 (1840) as translated by Elliott (1875:107-116) and Dall 

 (1870:336) the following notes on harvesting of sealskins are 

 taken. From 1786 to 1805, the taking of fur seals was uncon- 

 trolled. From 1806 to 1821, slight to no control over killing 

 was imposed from year to year. On 15 March 1821, the Com- 

 pany instructed the fur seal manager, as follows: "We must 

 suppose that a total suspension of killing every fifth year will 

 effectually stop the diminution of the fur-seals, and that it will 

 be safe at the expiration of the close season to resume killing 

 at. . .(fifty thousand annually)" (U.S. Congress, Senate 1895, 

 part 2, p. 44-45). 



From 1797 to 1821, the skins of 1,232,374 fur seals were ex- 

 ported from "the colonies" [including Commander and Kurile 

 Islands?] (Tikhmenev 1861-63, part 1, p. 289 transl.). 



With the "zapooska" (sparing, letting-go) of bachelors, be- 

 ginning in 1822, important reforms were introduced. These in- 

 cluded a kill quota and provision for a breeding reserve. Bulls 

 were no longer taken and the killing of silver pups 5 was limited 

 to such as were needed for food and oil. All killing was 

 stopped on St. Paul Island in 1822-24 and on St. George Island 

 in 1826-27 (Elliott 1875:107-116; Jordan and Clark 1898a:25). 



'Silver pup = after the first molt in autumn, the black pelage is replaced by 

 the silver adult type coat (Scheffer 1962:26). 



"About 1825, for convenience in handling cargo, the [St. 

 Paul] village was again changed to its present site. On St. 

 George Island several settlements existed originally, but were 

 consolidated at the present site about 1830-1835" (Lembkey 

 1911d:1038). 



"The Russians had a practice of ceasing to take skins wnen 

 the shedding commenced, and their calendar for this season is 

 our 12th of August" (Elliott 1874, p. [107]). 



Rilling was again stopped on St. Paul in 1835-37. Veniami- 

 nov gave a table predicting the return of seals over the 22-yr 

 period 1835-56. He postulated a five-fold increase in herd size, 

 to be followed after 1856 by a period of stability in which 

 "under the supervision of persons who will see that one-fifth 

 of the [bachelor] seals be steadily spared, 32,000 may be taken 

 every year for a long time" (Elliott 1875:113). From 1835 to 

 1839 the reported kill was low, <7,000/yr (Veniaminov [1892]; 

 Riley 1961:9). "It is not clear whether this was due entirely to 

 indiscriminate slaughter or to the combination of this with di- 

 saster resulting from the continuance of the ice floes about the 

 islands far into the summer" (Jordan and Clark 1898a:25). 



The Company directors wrote on 31 March 1840 to the fur 

 seal manager: "You will bear in mind that we look upon the 

 fur-seal catch as the most important item of our colonial enter- 

 prises" (U.S. Congress, Senate 1895, part 2, p. 62). 



Elliott (1887:381) believed that 1847 marked the first year 

 "when the females were entirely exempted from slaughter." 

 The St. Paul Island agent wrote in 1847 that skins of 5,607 

 young males and 1,890 4- and 5-yr males were being shipped. 

 Not again until 1956 were female seals killed deliberately in the 

 Pribilof harvest. 



The kill dropped in 1850-52 to<7,000/yr, for unknown 

 reasons. 



"To economize, in 1858 the Company began making seal oil 

 for its ships and machinery. A thousand gallons from the Prib- 

 ilofs that year saved them five thousand rubles" (Martin 

 1946a:97). 



The Pribilof herd was evidently well conserved in the latter 

 part of the 81-yr Russian regime ending in 1867. In the final 

 decade the mean annual take of sealskins was 30,610 according 

 to Riley (1961:5) and 34,739 according to Sims (1906:34). And 

 in 1864 the chief manager of the Russian-American colonies 

 wrote to the island manager of St. Paul Island "to take here- 

 after annually about 70,000 fur-seal skins . . . only in case no 

 decrease in the numbers of the animals is observed" (U.S. 

 Congress, Senate 1895, part 2, appendix, p. 89-90). This quota 

 is not far from the mean annual yield of bachelor sealskins, 

 66,427, during the decade 1941-50 when the Pribilof herd 

 finally reached a population plateau under U.S. management 

 (Riley 1961:7). 



In summary the history of sealing in the Russian period is as 

 follows: 



1786-1805 Wasteful overkilling; the herd undoubtedly de- 

 clining. 



1806-07 The first closed season. 



1808 Rilling resumed with slight control. 



1822-27 Partial closed season; bulls and pups now spared; 

 introduction of a kill quota and breeding reserve. 



1835-39 Period of low annual kills, fewer than 7,000; herd 

 size also probably low. 



1847 Females now spared. 



