Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 4.djvu/163

Rh the Alaska territory. When, in 1869, General George H. Thomas was sent by our government to examine and report upon the country, he estimated the fur-bearing seals, or sea-otters, seen each summer on these islands, at from 5,000,000 to 15,000,000, lying in the rookeries, and covering hundreds of acres. For the last fifty or sixty years, the Russian Government had limited the number of skins to be taken yearly to some 80,000 or less. As General Thomas recommended that the hunting and killing of these animals should be regulated by law, Congress, in 1870, adopted substantially the Russian system; and in a few weeks the Alaska Company, of which Hon. Henry P. Haven,



of New London, Connecticut, is a prominent owner and influential officer, leased from the United States the islands of St. Paul and St. George. The company contracted to pay a rent of $55,000 per annum, and a revenue tax of $2.62½ on each fur-seal taken and shipped from the islands. Two United States officials are stationed on each of these islands to see that the company complies with the conditions of the lease, and to count the skins as they are shipped to San Francisco, where they are again counted by the custom-house officers. The number taken annually must not exceed 100,000. The catch in 1872 amounted to 96,069 skins. The sea-otter is the boldest swimmer of the amphibious tribe, for troops of them are met with 300 miles from land. When holding a fore-paw over their eyes, in order to look about them with more distinctness, they are called sea-apes. They are exclusively found in the North Pacific Ocean and on its borders, between the 49th and 60th degrees of latitude; and, although living mostly in the water, they are occasionally found on land very far from