THE RUSSIAN FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 
55 
The Urui) Aleuts, who had never had any experieiiee witli the driving of fnr-seals, 
were afraid of tlie vast nninbers which blocked the way, so that no landing was 
effected, and Limachevski liad to sail away. 
In 1870, however, the seals did not fare so well. In that year at least two 
schooners raided the island. Mr. I). Webster, of Pribylof Island fame, arrived 
there in the schooner Mauna Loa, and the number of skins taken on liobben Island 
was probably more than 20,0()0.' 
The island was ^‘practically cleaned out” again, so that when the representatives 
of the lessees of the Russian Seal Islands arrived on Tiuleni in 1871, “there were 
not over 2,000 seals to be found on the entire island.” Capt. G. Mebaum, a member 
of the firm, landed there in August, and seeing the depleted state of the rookery 
ordered that no killing should take place there that year, nor, in fact, until “such 
time as seemed prudent to resume, so as to give the rookeries opportuiuty to recu- 
perate, leaving strict orders to the guard-ship to protect them against molestation.” 
The result of this wise order was that in 1873, not more than two years after, the 
rookeries had so far recovered that sealing could be commenced again on a small 
scale, and about 2,700 seals were taken that year by thecoinx^any, “knowing that the 
killing of the useless male seals would accelerate the increase of the herd. From this 
time forward the herd showed a steady and healthy growth,”^ and Avould ijrobably 
have continued so had it not been for the un]3aralleled boldness of the seal x>irates. 
They fitted out in Japan and sailed under various flags, British, German, Dutch, 
United States, etc., and from about 1879 i)aid special attention to searching for 
hitherto unknown seal rookeries on the Kuril Islands and elsewhere in the Okhotsk 
Sea, as well as raiding those already well known. Eobben Island, being conveiuently 
located, poorly protected by a single schooner and a few Aleuts, and absolutely 
unjirotected later in the season, after the comiiany had finished the legitimate catch, 
was particularly exposed to the ravages of these marauders. The total number of 
seals indiscriminately slaughtered by them on that lonely rock will never be known, 
nor, probably, the names of all the vessels that took part. The following few 
Ijarticulars, however, will give a good idea of the slaughter and the methods. 
In 1880 the comxiany’s schooner Leon, Captain Blair, landed at Eobben Island 
with the Aleut workmen on June 13 and found there already two schooners, the Otsego 
and the North Star, though they had been unable to do anything, as the seals had not 
yet arrived. During the summer schooners were scarce. On June 22 the Yladimir 
touched there; on July 16 the Stella came around, and on July 20 the Flying Mist. 
On September 4 the com^Aany’s steamer Alehsander II, Captain Sandman, called and 
took off the 3,330 skins. Sandman records in his log that he found “ on shore a con- 
siderable number of jaujas and females, but very few killing seals.” After the lessees’ 
vessel left, however, things became lively. When Capt. A. C. Folger arrived in the 
scliooner Adele he found 11 schooners already assembled there, and he states (Fur 
Seal Arb., viii, 062) that “ altogether we got 3,800 seals; we killed them all or drove 
them away.” It is possibly to the raids of this year that W. F. Ux)Son refers {totn. eit., 
^Webster, according to the British Bering Sea Commission, put the number of skins he assisted 
in taking at 15,000, but they add that “ Kluge’s estimate of the number taken was 10,000.” When 
reading this report on Bering Island last summer, Mr. Kluge stated to me that he understood 
Webster’s catch in 1870 to have been about 20,000, and tliat he did not “ estimate ” 10,000, as alleged 
by the commissioners, he not having been there at the time. (Reji. Brit. Bering Sea Comm., p. 89). 
’^Niebaum, Fur Seal Arb., in, p. 203. 
