THE RUSSIAN FUR-SEAL ISLANDS, 
91 
and, not to be forgotten, i)lenty of alcohol. In return they brought away as many 
l)elts as they could induce the natives to secure. The rivalry between the traders was 
very sharp and the natives bad high carnival most of the time as a conseipience. 
Gambling and drinking prevailed to a fearful extent, and the natives were willing to 
sell anything and everything for whisky. The drunken debauches were carried on 
right on the rookeries, and it is authoritatively stated that, as the skins of the female 
seals were higher priced, because of their finer fur, quite a number of this class were 
slain. Besides, drunken men would not be very apt to discriminate as nicely as neces- 
sary to distinguish the females from the bachelors. It is al.so authoritatively asserted 
that a count of the skius taken was never kept, neither by the natives nor by the police 
authorities in Petropaulski. The figures presented elsewhere, giving the total export 
of skius for the period as from 00,000 to 05,000, are, therefore, only guesses and are 
probably underestimated rather than overestimated. At least one of the vessels, 
with its valuable cargo of furs, was lost. As a result of this reckless slaughter the 
rookeries were nearly ruined in those three years. 
In 1871 there Avas a wholesome awakening. Hutchinson, Kohl & Co., a San Fran- 
cisco firm Avhich had already acquired extensive proj)erty and trading rights in Alaska, 
had opened negotiations Avith the authorities at St. Petersburg for a lease of the islands 
on practically the same conditions npon Avhieh the Alaska Commercial Company 
leased the Pribylof Islands of the United States, and the contract was signed Feb- 
ruary 18, 1871, but Avas kept a profound secret until the following summer. In the 
meantime the Ice Company, ignorant of the lease and in anticipation of a profitable 
season, had dispatched a large cargo of merchandise to the islands. Shortly after 
the representative of the new company arrived Avith the lease and took i)ossession. 
As the lease not only included the monopoly of taking the furs but also of trading 
with the natives, there was no other choice for the Ice Company but to sell out to its 
successful rival at a l uinous ])rice. So Avell had the secret been kept that even the 
ispravuik at Petropaulski, Avho Avas still to retain Jurisdiction over the islands, did 
not know of the lease and the impending change until it was presented to him by the 
company’s representative alluded to. 
With the taking of possession by the neAV company a new order of things com- 
menced. The firm’s name was altered to Hutchinson, Kohl, Philippeus & Co. It 
had been necessary, in order to obtain the lease from the Kussiau authorities, to 
include at least one Eussian subject in the firm, and Mr. Philippeus, a Bussian 
merchant having great trading interests in Kamchatka and neighboring districts, 
was paid a considerable amount for the use of his name in this connection. Nomi- 
nally, therefore, the company was Eussian, but practically it Avas American. Their 
vessels were flying the Eussian Hag, but they were American property. In I87H 
Hutchinson, Kohl & Co. sold their interest and property in Alaska to the Alaska 
Commercial Company of San Francisco, members of which also acquired a coiitrolliug 
interest in the Eussian company. From that time on until the expiration of the 
lease in February, 1891, the management of the comiiany’s affairs on the Commander 
Islands and Tiuleni Island were in the hands of the celebrated firm, with head- 
quarters at 310 Sausome Street, San Francisco. 
The management now became practically identical Avith that on the Pribylofs, and 
an emidoyee from the latter was sent over to the Commander Islands to teach the 
natives the imxiroved methods of taking the seals and curing the skins adopted 
