sale destruction and the fear of final extinction led our govern¬ 
ment, in its lease to the Alaska Commercial Company, to limit 
the annual capture to one hundred thousand, which continues the 
authorized limit. It has been suggested, however, that if an ad¬ 
ditional fifty thousand were added, it would not more than com¬ 
prise the number actually destroyed by authorized and unauthor¬ 
ized agents. 
The strange instinct of the seal to return yearly in such num¬ 
bers to be slaughtered is a mystery not easily explained. Cruelty 
and the destruction of millions during the past one hundred years 
do not appear to have disturbed their affection for these islands, 
but, on the contrary, appear to have caused greater persistency in 
claiming and perpetuating their ancestral homes. In a recent re¬ 
port to the Honorable Secretary of the Treasury it is stated that 
the number of these annual visitors is increasing rather than 
diminishing. u The grand total of fur-seal life in 1873, upon 
actual inspection, is believed to be represented by more than four 
million, seven hundred thousand, and it is estimated one million 
young seals are born on the Seal Islands every year.” In eleven 
years the United States Treasury has received a revenue from 
these islands of three million, four hundred and fifty-two 
thousand, four hundred and eight dollars and fifty cents. 
Second in importance to the seal, competing with it only in the 
quality of its fur, more highly prized, and exceeding it greatly in 
value, is the sea-otter. Originally, we are told, the sea-otter 
fishery was a more important and valuable trade than the seal 
fishery ; but increasing scarcity of the otter and greater difficulty 
in its capture have led to an abandonment of this enterprise to a 
great extent. Though reduced in importance, it is not extinct, 
as an annual capture of several thousand indicates. The third 
branch of the fur trade active in Alaska includes the land fur¬ 
bearing animals. The revenue from this source is also very 
great, and, in the aggregate, may quite equal those just men¬ 
tioned. As an indication of the yield of the forests in fur, we 
refer to the supply of a few only. In past years it is observed 
that the Territory has furnished annually fifty-seven thousand 
beaver skins, eighteen thousand land-otter, of five varieties of 
foxes seventy-one thousand, and of muskrats two hundred and 
twenty-one thousand. 
