54 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
the raiders, but apparently with but iioor success, judging from the history to be 
related further on. This failure is partly due to the fact that on account of the 
severity of the season the guard has beeu taken off before the middle of (October. 
As remarked above, the island is included in the lease of the Commander Islands, 
and Hutchinson, Kohl, riiilippeus & Co. took imssessiou of it in 1871. The Robben 
Island part of the business was attended to chiedy by the schooner XeoM, Capt. John 
G. Blair; mate, Mr. E. Kluge. The name of the schooner belonging to the new 
company is the Bobrik (pi. 5db), Capt. D. Greenberg, master, who for many years was 
first mate on the old comi)any’s steamer Aleksander II (pi. 59rt). The skins have 
hitherto been shipiied to London via San Francisco. 
HISTORY OF ROBBEN ISLAND. 
The history of this little reef is very interesting and highly instructive as showing 
how nearly ijnpossible it is to extii’xiate the seals, either by harsh measures on shore or 
by excessive raids from marauding vessels. 
The existence of seal rookeries on Robben Island was probably first discovered 
by some of the numerous American whalers frequenting Okhotsk Sea in the early 
fifties. In a recent statement Capt. G. Niebaum alludes to these early visits as 
follows : 
From information gathered from various sources I learn that Eohhen Bank Avas first visited and 
exploited hy whalers about 1852 or 1853, and that in two seasons they obtained some 50.000 or 60,000 skins, 
almost completely “cleaning it out.” I understand that for several years thereafter the occasional 
vessel Avhich touched there found the rookeries practically deserted. (Fur Seal Arb., iii, p. 203.) 
Captain Scamnion (Marine Mammalia, pj). 150-152) gives an account of a visit 
of a New London bark to Robben Island in 1854 or 1855, which it may be well to 
reproduce here: 
In the midst of the Crimean war an enterprising firm in New London, Conn., fitted out a 
clixiper hark, which was officered and manned exjiressly I'or a sealing Amyage in the Okhotsk Sea. 
The cajitain Avas a veteran in the business, and many thought him too old to command, but the result 
of the A'oyage x’l’OAmd him equal to the task. The A^essel x>roceeded to Robben Island, a mere volcanic 
rock, situated on the eastern side of the large island of Saghalien. Many outlying rocks and reefs 
are about it, making it dangerous to aj)X)roach and alfording but slight shelter for an anchorage. 
Here the vessel (of about 300 tons) lay, Avith ground tackle of the weight for a craft of twice her 
size. Much of the time fresh winds x)reAmiled, acconquanied by the usual ugly ground-swell, and in 
consetpience of her being long, Ioav, and sharji the deck was at such times frequently flooded; never- 
theless, she “rode out the whole season, though Avet as a half-tide rock,” and a Aualuahle cargo of skins 
was xu'oeured, Avhich brought an unusually high price in the European market on account of the 
regular Russian suirply being out off in consequence of the Avar. 
Robben Island was thus “ iiractically cleaned out”; the whaling industry also came 
to an end, and the very existence of seals on the lonely rock was almost forgotten. 
At the breaking uf) of the gi-eat Rnssian-American Company in 1869, many 
enterprising citizens of California and Alaska turned their attention to the Pribylof 
Islands and the Commander group ; the Kuril Islands and the Okhotsk Sea attracted 
the attention of Captain Limachevski. With a schooner manned by Aleuts (Kadiak 
Islanders?) from Urup Island, tlie station of the Russian- American Company on the 
Kuril Islands, he sailed, in 1869, to Robben Island. During the 14 years of rest since 
the Crimean Avar the seals had again multiplied to such an extent that they were 
occupying the entire beach all around the rock, as in the days Avhen first discovered. 
