ALASKA. 
47 
early as the year 1870, designed to protect the seal and other fur¬ 
bearing animals in Bering Sea and the other possessions recently 
acquired from Russia. At a later period, this statute, with others 
that had been subsequently passed, was revised, I think in the 
year 1873, w ^en a general revision of the statutes of the United 
States was made. They were revised and made more stringent. 
It was made a criminal offense to kill any female seal; and the 
taking of any seals at all, except in pursuance of the authority of 
the United States and under such regulations as it might adopt, 
was made a criminal offense. Any vessel engaged in the taking 
of female seals in the waters of Alaska, according to the phrase 
used in the statute, was made liable to seizure and confiscation; 
and in this way, it was hoped and expected that the fur seals would 
be preserved in the future as completely as they had been in the 
past, and that this herd would continue to be still as productive as 
before, and if possible, made more productive. That system thus 
initiated by the United States in the year 1870 produced the 
same result as had followed the regulations established by Russia. 
The United States Government was enabled, even, to take a larger 
draft than Russia had prior to that time, made upon the herd. 
Russia had limited herself at an early period to the taking of 
somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 seals annually, not solely, 
perhaps, for the reason that no more could be safely taken from 
the herd, but also for the reason, as I gather from the evidence, 
that at that time, the demand for seals was not so great as to justify 
the putting of a larger number of skins upon the market. 
At a later period of the occupation by Russia, her drafts were 
increased. At the time when the occupation was transferred to 
the United States, I think they amounted to somewhere between 
50,000 and 70,000 annually. The United States, as I say, took 
100,000 from the beginning, and continued to make those annual 
drafts of 100,000 down to the year 1890. I hat is a period ot 
something like nineteen years. The taking ot this number ot 
