ALASKA. 
seals in almost equal multitudes. They were on uninhabited 
islands. They were in places where no protection could be 
extended against the capture of them. They were in places where 
no system of regulations limiting drafts which might be made 
upon them could be established, and the consequence was that in 
a few short years, they were practically exterminated from every 
one of such haunts and have remained ever since practically, in a 
commercial point of view, exterminated, except in some few places 
over which the authority of some power has been exercised, and 
where regulations have been adopted more or less resembling 
those adopted upon the Pribilof Islands, and by which means the 
race has to a certain extent, although comparatively small, been 
preserved. 
That was the condition of things when these islands passed into 
the possession of the United States under the treaty, between 
that Government and Russia, of 1867. At first, upon the acqui¬ 
sition by the United States Government, its authority was not 
immediately established and, consequently, this herd of seals 
was exposed to the indiscriminate ravages of individuals who 
might be tempted thither by their hope of gaining a profit; and 
the result was that in the first year, something like 240,000 seals 
were taken, and although some discrimination was attempted and 
an effort was made to confine the taking, as far as possible, to males 
only, yet those efforts were not in every respect successful. That 
great draft thus irregularly and indiscriminately made upon them 
had undoubtedly a very unfavorable effect; but *he following 
year, the United States succeeded in establishing its authority and 
at once readopted the system which had been up to that time pur¬ 
sued by Russia and which had been followed by such advantageous 
results. 
In addition to that, and foi the purpose of further insuring the 
preservation of the herd, the United States Government resorted 
to national legislation. Laws were passed, the first of them as 
