THE KUSSIAN FUE-SEAL ISLANDS. 
95 
STATISTICS. 
ITaving thus given a brief resume of tbe liistory of the fur-seal industry on the 
Russian side, as it is revealed in the scanty records, it may be well to present, in 
chronological order, sucb statistics as I have beeu able to bring together showing the 
number of fur-seals taken at various times on tbe Commander Islands. Unfortunately, 
many of tbe figures submitted are only bypotbetical, some even bigbly problematical, 
but I bave accompanied them with a running comment wbicb it is hoped is sufficiently 
explicit to show bow tbe estimates were made. 
It is not probable that any great slaughter of tbe fur-seals took place during tbe 
first period. Bassof and Trapeznikof returned from tbe Commander Islands in 1746 
with a cargo of furs, among wbicb are mentioned 2,000 fur-seals (Bancroft, Works, 
XXXIII, j). 100), but in tbe returns of tbe other expeditions between 1743 and 17.50 
no other mention of seal skins is made. As sea-otters and blue foxes are mentioned 
frequently, it is evident that tbe fur-seal skins were of but little importance and value. 
It is also probable that in those days only tbe ])ups were taken, for it is specifically 
stated that Yugof’s cargo of fur-seals, when tbe vessel returned in 1754 from Copper 
Island, consisted of 1,765 black pups and 447 gray ones (Yeue ISTacbr. Yeuent. Ins., 
1776, j). 22). Tolstykh, likewise, in 1750 returned from Bering Island with 840 
“young fur-seal skins or {ibid., p. 26), and Vorobief in 1752 is said to bave 
brought to Kamchatka, probably from tbe Commander Islands, “5,700 black and 1,310 
gray young fur-seals or IcotiM” {ibid., p. 27). Drusbiuin in 1755 returned with 2,500 
seals taken on Bering Island {ibid., p. 32). These, as well as the 2,000 brought by tbe 
Vladimir in 1767 and the 630 in PopoVs Ioann Pretecha in 1772, were also [u obably young. 
As I bave shown elsewhere (Amer. Natural., xxi, Dec., 1887, p. 10.53), tbe sea-cow 
on tbe Commander Islands bad become nearlj^ extinct in 1763. The sea-otter had 
also been killed off there to sucb an extent that the hunt had become unprofitable, 
and the blue foxes likewise. As tbe fur-seal skins were of comparatively little value, 
there were no inducements for tbe fur-hunters to visit the islands after that time as 
frequently as before. It is certain enough, as shown above, that tbe fur-seals bad not 
left tbe Commander Islands, or become nearly extinct there, as alleged by Elliott, as 
there are records of vessels having actually visited the islands between 1760 and 1786, 
bringing plenty of seal skins back. As a matter of fact, it was during this very period 
that tbe heaviest slaughter of fur-seals took place on tbe Commander Islands. It 
appears that Sbelikof was tbe first trader to deal extensively in fur-seals, and bis 
name is not mentioned until 1776. It is stated that up to 1780, consequently in four- 
years, be bad imported 70,000 fur-seal skins. It is furthermore stated that bis vessel, 
Sv. Ioann RyhTcoi, returned in 1786 with 18,000 fur-seals. In the same year Protassof 
returned with a “cargo consisting chietly of fur-seals.” Panof’s vessel, 8v. Georyi, 
which also returned in 1786, bad less luck, having secured only 1,000 seal skins. As 
tbe Pribylof Islands were not discovered until that year- (tbe first cargo from there did 
not arrive in Okhotsk until 1789), tbe bulk of tbe fur-seal skins brought to Kamchatka 
must bave come from Commander Islands (see Bancroft, Works, xxxiii, pp. 185-191). 
There is record ot about 100,000 skins having been taken between 1760 and 1786, while 
from 1746 to 1760 tbe skins brought to Kamchatka probably did not exceed 20,000. 
For the early times, between tbe return of tbe first cargo from tbe Pribylof Islands 
to 1841, tbe year of tbe expiration of tbe second term of tbe Russian-American 
Company, there are absolutely no accessible records as to tbe number of seals taken at 
