INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 59 



V. It is a fact of indisputable record that Yanovsky, in 1820, after 

 spending the entire season of 1819 on the Pribilof hauling grounds 

 and rookeries, made a confidential detailed report which declared 

 that this immense decline in the life of the fur-seal herd was due 

 entirely to the annual killing of all of the young male seals and year- 

 lings which the drivers of the company could secure; he urged a 

 complete cessation of it for a term of years. 



VI. It is a fact of indisputable record that this request of Gen. 

 Yanovsky was ignored by the directors, and the orders to get all of 

 the young male seals and yearlings were annually renewed; 1 and 



VII. It is a fact of indisputable record that at the end of the season 

 of 1834, instead of getting 20,000 holluschickie, they secured, with the 

 "utmost exertion/' only 12,000 "small" (yearling) seals; and that 

 with the end of this season's work the herd was so reduced that the 

 directors were obliged to order a 10 years' rest to all commercial kill- 

 ing on the islands, which went into effect in the summer of 1834, and 

 was faithfully enforced; so that by 1844 commercial killing was 

 resumed of a relatively small number, beginning with 10,000 to 13,000, 

 increasing gradually annually up to 1857, when this herd yielded that 

 year 62,000 "choice young male" seals, and the herd itself had 

 regained its natural and normal maximum number, viz, from 4,500,000 

 to 5,000,000 seals of all classes. 



VIII. It is a fact that during all this period of decline and restora- 

 tion of the Russian herd from 1800 to 1857 there was nothing known 

 of, or hinted at, which is now so well known as "pelagic sealing." 



IX. It is a fact that when we took possession of the herd we leased 

 them to a corporation with a permit to take annually 100,000 young 

 male seals, or 40,000 more every year than had been the average 

 number taken by the Russian management since 1857. 



X. It is a fact of indisputable record that by 1883 our lessees had 

 great difficulty in getting their quota this year of 100,000 "prime" 

 3 and 4 year old skins ; that they began to scour the hauling grounds 

 for them, and increased the rigor of that search and driving annually 

 thereafter. 



XI. It is a fact of indisputable record that up to this time of first 

 difficulty since 1870, of getting annually 100,000 fine young male 

 seals, no pelagic sealing of the slightest consequence was in operation; 

 only six or seven small vessels, busy for a few weeks in the year, off 

 the Straits of Fuca and west coast of Vancouver Island, had appeared 

 in the sea up to the opening of the season of 1886. 



(1) Therefore, in the light as above clearly and fairly thrown by 

 these records of past experience, we now know that the Pribilof herd 



1 As Yanovsky's report was a confidential paper, and as such seen only by the board of directors, we 

 have no details beyond those given out, as below, and taken from the records of the administrative office 

 at Sitka. It is, however, very clearly stated that the excessive killing of young male seals is the sole cause' 

 of the impending ruin of the herd, to wit: 



"In his report No. 41, of the 25th February, 1820, Mr. Yanovsky, in giving an account of his inspection 

 of the operations on the islands of St. Paul and St. George, observes that every year the young bachelor 

 seals are killed and that only the cows, 'sekatch' and half 'sekatch,' are left to propagate the species. 

 It follows that only the old seals are left, while if any of the bachelors remain alive in the autumn they 

 are sure to be killed the next spring. The consequence is that the number of seals obtained diminishes 

 every year, and it is certain that the species will in time become extinct. 



"This view is confirmed by experience. In order to prevent the extinction of the seals it would be well 

 to stop the killing altogether for one season and to give orders that not more than 40,000 are ever to be killed 

 in any one year on the island of St. Paul, or more than 10,000 in any one year on the island of St. George. 



"Mr. Yanovsky considers that if these measures are adopted the number of seals will never diminish. 

 The board of administration, although they concur in Mr. Yanovsky's view, have decided not to adopt 

 the measures proposed by him unless it is found that there is no migration of seals to the two small islands 

 which are believed to exist to the south and north of the chain of islands. * * *" [Letter of the secretary 

 of board of directors R. A. Co., St. Petersburg, Mar. 15, 1821, to Gov. Muraivev, Sitka, Alaska.] 



