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ICEBERGS AS SEEN OFF THE NORTHERN SHORES OF. ALASKA.

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thousand Koloschians engaged in trafficking with the interior tribes for this company. The annual productions of the company amounted to more than a million dollars.

The islands of St. George and St. Paul, in 57° north, longitude 170° west, off the mouth of Bristol bay, in Behring sea, are the resort of the fur-seal, so long so valuable a source of profit to the Russian American Fur Company, and now, by act of Congress, made a source of revenue to the federal government. By this act, approved July 1, 1870, the government grants to the Alaska Commercial Company, composed of capitalists of San Francisco and New York, the exclusive right to take fur-seal on the islands of St. George and St. Paul for the term of twenty years, from the 1st of May, 1870, at an annual rent of fifty-five thousand dollars, and a tax or duty of two dollars and sixty-two and a half cents on each skin sold or shipped, and fifty-five cents on each gallon of seal oil, with twenty-five thousand dried salmon and other articles annually to the natives. The number of skins collected annually is restricted to one hundred thousand, which must be taken during the months of June, July, September, and October of each year. Provision is made, however, for the natives of the islands being housed, clothed, fed, and educated, and for their taking, at all seasons, such seals for food or clothing as may be necessary. The late Major-General Thomas, in his official report on his visiting St. Paul and St. George in 1869, said:

"The number of seals on the islands, after the young are born, is estimated all the way from five to fifteen million; but they are countless, lying in the rookeries, covering hundreds of acres, like sheep in a pen."

The habits of these seals are peculiar. About the last of April, or early part of May, the old male seals come from the south, and land upon St. George and St. Paul, (the only islands inhabited by them.) After thoroughly examining the coast and interior of the islands for several days, soon millions begin to arrive, and, forming themselves into families, or colonies, led by the old males, they slowly make their way to the rookeries or secluded portions of the interior. The able-bodied males form a circle, inside of which they guard the females, keeping the young and the superannuated males on the outside. The object seems to be to protect the females and their young. Fierce battles ensue between the guardians of the families, and also with them and the old and young male seals kept on the outer circle.

Under the regulations of killing these seals, only the young and old males on the outer circle are taken. The native hunters, armed with clubs, make their way along the outer circle of the families, and drive toward the interior the males on the outside of the families. Sometimes they drive them one or two miles; here, out of the range of the families, they slaughter them by striking them on the head with their clubs, secure all the skins they can, and return the next day, to repeat the same operation, until the desired supply is obtained. The old males still keep guard over the females and their young until the young are able to take to the water freely, when all make for the shore and sport on the rocks and in the waters, all mingling again indiscriminately, and remaining on the islands and on their shores until September or October, when suddenly they head south, abandon the islands, and are seen no

more until the following spring, when, as before, they repeat their family gatherings and births in the rookeries of St. Paul and St. George. It is not known where they go nor whence they come: doubtless they seek refuge in some of the islands off the Asiatic coast.

The fur of these seals is very dark, fine, soft, and beautiful, like the finest black silk velvet, with a golden shade toward the skin. Long, coarse gray hairs stand out above this fine coat, and all skins are pickelled, sent to London, England, (the only part of the world where they are dressed,) where, by a process of operating on the flesh side, all the long hairs are extracted, and the skins dressed, leaving a soft, beautiful plush of great value and highly prized.

Considering the great importance of the whale, walrus, sea-otter, salmon, cod, and other fisheries of Alaska, and the needed development of the resources of the country, both the constitutionality and the equity of the national government giving absolute and exclusive control of the islands of St. George and St. Paul, their valuable fur-seals and inhabitants, into the hands of a few capitalists, to the exclusion of all other citizens of the republic, may well be seriously questioned. The fur seal-skins which a few years since could be bought of the natives of the Aleutian islands for a dollar apiece are now sold when dressed, throughout the United States, at twenty-five dollars each and upwards.

The fur-seal of Alaska is not found in any other part of America. The seal so numerous off the coast of Newfoundland and vicinity, taken on the ice by fleets of steamers and vessels annually, are the common hair seal, brown and spotted-the skin and oil of each being worth only about three dollars.

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