THE EUSSIAN FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 
97 
While thus the figures rehitiug to the Pribylof Islands are dubious and unsatis- 
factory, there ai'o next to iio records in regard to the catcli on the Commander Islands 
between 1787 and 1802. lu fact, there is hardly a scrap of available history to be 
found on the subject during that period. 
There is no reason to doubt, however, that the slaughter of the fur-seals on the 
Commander Islands after 1787 was as enormous as on the Pribylofs, proportionately 
(where, according to my calculation, the average annual killing \vas SO, .511.)' The 
result of this indiscriminate wholesale slaughter undoubtedly brought the rookeries 
to a very low ebb, for Ave find the Commander Islands practically abandoned shortly 
after the establishment of the Eussian-American Company, and a permanent popula- 
tion Avas not again established until after 1826, by Avhich time the rookeries must have 
recu])erated to some extent. The same old method of killing the young ones, and 
not eA-en sparing the females, must soon have brought on the inevitable result of 
depletion, for we tind that the chief manager of the colonies, Caiit. I. A. Kuiirianof, as 
early as 1830, had conferred Avith the baidar-steerer JShayashnikof as to Avhen, in his 
opinion, it would be possible to liegin taking a full catch on St. Paul Island in order 
to establish a. close time for sealing on St. George and the Commander Islands, and that 
Captain Etholin, his successor as chief manager, in 1812 asked lAermission to institute 
a close season on the Commander Islands, a permission that Avas granted the folloAviug 
year (Fur Seal Arb., xvi, pp. 76, 111).^ 
Shortly after, the prohibition to kill females was enforced, and as a result of both 
measirres the seals Avere again increasing, so that in 1859 the chief manager could 
write to St. Petersburg that, according to the reports of the officials of “ even those of 
the Commander Islands, the seals have increased in numbers on all accessible places 
to such an extent that the areas occupied by them apjAear crowded.” It is evident, 
hoAvever, that the managers lu-oceeded Avith caution, notAvithstanding, for in the years 
from 1862 to 1867, the year of the final dissolution of the Eussian-American Company, 
only 1,000 to 5,000 seals (gray pups) a year are said to have been taken. These figures 
are from the following table, Avhich is copied from the report of the British Bering 
Sea commissioners (p. 211), those from 1865 being official: 
Skin8 taken for shipment from Commander Islands, 1862-1867 , hy the Biissian- American Company 
after the expiration of its third term. 
Notes. 
Tear. 
N’umber. 
18G2 
4, 000 
4, .’>00 
5. 000 
4. 000 
4, 000 
4. 000 
Do . 
18C3 
Do 
1864 
Do 
1865 
Do 
1866 
Bo 
1867 
3 25, 500 
’Not only Avere females and pups killed, but the “hulls and yonnir hulls” also, for in spite of 
their coarse hair the Chinese at Kiakhta ]>aid high prices for them (Fur Seal Arh., aui, p. 165). 
^Figures representing the catch during the Russian- American Company’s terms are given in the 
final table of shipments hy periods. 
”In Nordenskiiild’s “A^oyage of the Vega,” Am. ed., p. 609, tliere is a table of figures relating to 
the catch of seals on the Commander Islands involving several errors. Aside from the fact that 
it purports to ghm the catch on P.eriug Island only, Avhile in reality the figures represent the catch 
on both Bering and Copper islands, it gives the catch for the year 1867 as 27, .500 se.als. Here is 
apparently a, double error. Compared with the corrected figures giA'en by Elliott (JIonogr.,p. 113), 
27,;>00 is evidently meant to include the catch from 1862 to 1867, inclusive, in Avhich case, howeAmr, the 
statement is 2,000 too high. 
F. C. B. 1896-7 
