INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



Committee on Expenditukes in the 



Department of Commerce, 

 House of Representatives, 



Thursday, April 2, 1914. 



The committee this day met, Hon. John H. Rothermel (chairman) 

 presiding. 



The Chairman. There is a quorum present, and we will proceed. I 

 have called the committee together for the purpose of considering the 

 report to be made upon the fur-seal investigation, and will read the 

 same to the committee: 



[House Report No. — , Sixty-third Congress, second session.] 

 THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OP ALASKA. 



April — . — Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed. 



Mr. Rothermel, from the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Com- 

 merce, submitted the following report: 



The Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce, proceeding under 

 its general powers to inquire into the leasing of sealing privileges on the Pribilof 

 Islands of Alaska, the conduct of the lessees on the said seal islands, the management 

 by the officials of the Government in charge of the fur-seal herd after the expiration 

 of said leases, beg leave to report as follows: 



Specific charges having been filed with the committee August 31, 1913, alleging 

 that the agents of the Government had conspired with the lessees of the seal islands 

 to take seals in violation of law and the provisions of their contract; and also that the 

 said lessee company had secured the lease from the Government by fraud and perjury, 

 the committee determined to investigate these questions and report its findings of 

 fact to the House. Extended hearings were had, beginning October 13, 1913, and 

 ended March 13, 1914. 



The committee, after due and careful deliberation, finds the following facts: 



I. That when the United States took possession of the fur-seal herd, in 1867-68, by 

 virtue of the treaty of cession from Russia, and leased it to the Alaska Commercial Co., 

 a corporation, for 20 years from May 1, 1870, the herd consisted of about 4,700,000 

 seals. (See pp. 56-57, hearing No. 1.) During the period of this lease, 1870-1890, the 

 lessees took 1,856,224 seals, deriving therefrom a net profit of $18,753,911.20, while the 

 net profit of the Government therefrom was but $5,264,230.08. (See hearing No. 1, 

 pp. 176-178.) 



II. That on March 12, 1890, a second lease was entered into with another corpora- 

 tion, known as the North American Commercial Co., of San Francisco, for a period 

 of 20 years. That when this lease was executed, a survey of the herd made in July 

 of that year, disclosed the fact that there were about 1,000,000 seals on the islands. 

 That this reduction of the heard was due to the combined effect of killing 100,000 

 seals annually on land, since 1870, and the energetic prosecution of pelagic sealing first 

 begun in 1883-84 and actively prosecuted since 1888. (See pp. 183-184, hearing No. 1.) 



That the heard had been depleted to such an extent in 1884, that the Alaska Com- 

 mercial Co. had difficulty in securing their average annual quota. In spite of this 

 fact, however, the said company continued to take an annual average of about 100,000 

 seals, until their lease expired in 1890. On the expiration of this lease, the heard 

 had been depleted to such an extent that the new lessee, the North American Com- 



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