96 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
or shipped from the Commander Islands, Elliott states (Monogr. Pribyl. Group, p. 
70) that from 1797 to 18G1 the statistics of skins taken from the Pribylof Islands 
include “about 5,000 annually from the Commander Islands,” but I have reasons for 
believing that this statement is erroneous. As I have shown elsewhere, there was no 
regular pox)ulation on the Commander Islands until after 182G, and as vessels touched 
at the islands at great intervals only, an annual catch of 5,000 skins from the Com- 
mander Islands is out of the question. This is also plain from the figures given by 
Veuiaminof and Von Wrangell, The former, according to the table presented by the 
British Bering Sea commissioners (Eep., p. 132), gives the total number of seals killed 
on the Pribylof Islands from 182G to 1832, inclusive, as 137,503. This agrees fairly 
well with the statement by Baron von Wrangell, the chief manager of the Eussian- 
American Company during that period, that the total number of skins exported from 
tlie colonies from 1827 to 1833 amounted to 132,1G0. This number is clearly meant to 
include all the skins exported from the whole colony, and would include any and all 
from the Commander Islands, if skins were then taken there, for he expressly remarks 
that his statistical figures date from the incorporation of the Atkha district, whitdi 
included the Commander Islands, under the colonial management (Stat, Ethn. Eachr, 
Euss. Besitz. Nordwestk. Amer., p. 24). 
The fact that the Commander Islands were not subject to the central management 
located at Sitka uutil 182G leads me to believe that the few Commander Islands skins 
taken are not reported in the figures before that date, but that they were received 
direct either at Petropaulski or Okhotsk,* 
But even Veniaminof’s figures are not beyond suspicion. In his “Zapiski,” pub- 
lished in St. Petersburg in 1840, vol. i, chai). xii, he writes as follows (according to 
Elliott, Monogr., p. 1G5) : “The company on the island of St. Paul killed from G0,000 
to 80,000 fur-seals per annum, but in the last time (1833?) [Elliott’s interpolation], with 
all possible care in getting them, they took only 12,000. On the island of St. George, 
instead of getting 40,000 or 35,000, only 1,300 were killed.” Now, if we examine the 
table of his figures, as presented by Elliott (Monogr., p. 143), we find no year between 
1817 and 1837 in whicli 12,000 seals were taken on St. Paul (13,200 in 1833), nor 1,300 
on St. George. 
’ To show bow very unsatisfactory the statistical fi}>ures of the early days as collated by the 
British Berina; Sea Commission are, I may mention that they estimate the number of fur-seals killed 
on the Pribylof Islands from 1786 to 1833, inclusive, as follows ; 
1786 (according to SLelikof) 40,000 
1787-1806 (Kezaiiof’s estimate) 1,000,000 
1807-1816 (approximated from Tiklimenief at 47,500 ammally) 475, 000 
1817-1833 (Veiiiaminof ) 543,239 
Total, 1786-1833 2,058,239 
This number is 1,120,323 skins short, for Baron von Wrangell, who undoubtedly had pretty reliable 
information to go by, states that “since the discovery of the islands St. Paul and St. George, from the 
year 1786 to 1833, 3,178,562 fur-seals were killed there” (Stat. Ethn. Nachr, Euss. Am., p. 48). These I 
should he inclined to distribute as follows; 
Fur-seals killed on St. Paul Island, 1786-1833; 
1780 (.according to Shelikof ) 40, 000 
1787-1798 1,095,467 
1799-1816 (Bancroft’s figures from 1799-1821, 1,767,340, minus Veni.aminof ’s figures 
from 1817-1821, 267,484) 1, 499, 856 
1817-1833 (Veniaminof) 543,239 
Total (= Von Wi-angell’s figure) 3, 178, 562 
In the same table and report it is stated (p. 133) how the figures for the years 1861 and 1862 are 
obtained: “1861. — Bancroft’s total for years 1842-1861 (both inclusive) is 338,600. The total for years 
1842-1860 (both inclusive) is 308,901. This lieing deducted from total for 1842-1861 gives the number 
of seals taken in 1861.” In their table, however, the total for 1842-1860 is not 308,901 hut 318,901. 
