FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1909. 
57 
sent abroad to be cleaned and dyed and brought back to be sold in our 
markets. The possession of such a certificate is considered to add 
about $10 to the value of the skin. 
The pelagic fleet hailing from British Columbia and working on 
the northern herd was composed of 5 vessels, and its catch is reported 
to have been 3,555 skins. The Japanese fleet ’working on the Alaska 
herd consisted of 23 vessels and is reported to have secured about 
10,000 skins. The Indian canoe catch along the British Columbia 
coast while the herd was migrating northward amounted to 187 skins. 
A Canadian pelagic sealing schooner, alleged to have been the 
Pescawha . , of Victoria, visited Chirikof Island, a small island south- 
west of Kodiak Island, on June 12, and two boat loads of armed 
men landed and killed 5 cattle, taking the carcasses aboard the 
schooner. Protests from a native who was in charge of the cattle 
for the owner, and even went aboard the vessel to remonstrate with 
the master regarding the raid, were disregarded. 
This outrage recalls an occurrence in 1907, when the native village 
of Uguiak, a few miles inside the mouth of Alitak Bay, at the south 
end of Kadiak Island, was raided by the crew of a Japanese sealing 
schooner. Throughout central Alaska there are a number of such 
small native villages, which are practically deserted during the 
summer months, when the inhabitants are working for the salmon 
canneries and salteries, in some instances 40 or 50 miles away. The 
safety of these villages is a matter of vital interest not only to the 
natives but to cannery and saltery proprietors as well, who draw upon 
them for labor. At the present time, however, there is practically 
no coast patrol or other protection in this region of central Alaska. 
Upon the sworn complaint of several Sitka Indian sealers that 
Japanese sealing vessels were killing seals within the 3-mile limit, 
and also landing on certain islands near by, the deputy marshal at 
Sitka, accompanied by a detail of marines from the post at that place, 
went out in launches on May 3 and captured the schooner Raise 
Maru , of 68.44 tons gross burden and hailing from the port of Ishi- 
hama, Japan, which was alleged to have been anchored at the place 
captured since April 28. The schooner, which was fully equipped 
for sealing, and had 10 skins aboard, was brought to Sitka, and 
shortly thereafter her crew of 30 people were transferred to the jail 
at Juneau, where they were confined until the time of their trial 
in September. All were acquitted through the inability of the In- 
dian witnesses to fix accurately the distance from shore at which 
the schooner was working. 
Early in May the collector of customs ordered a Japanese sealing 
schooner, which had been anchored for several days in Yakut at Bay 
for no apparent reason, to put to sea. 
