Page images
PDF
EPUB

The value of skins from the Unalaska district during the year 183 (at which time fur-seal skins were scarce) is illustrated by the following table' compiled by the same person:

[blocks in formation]

2

Tikhmenief publishes two main tables showing the numbers of all furs exported from the Russian American Colonies between the years 1821 and 1862.

Following are the data contained in the first table, which covers the period from 1821 to 1842:

[blocks in formation]

Following are the data contained in the second table, which covers

the period from 1842 to 1862:

[blocks in formation]

During the years 1863-1867 there were exported from the Russian American Colonies fur-seals to the number of 198,718.8

1 Page 83. This author explains at length the causes of the diminution of seal life during the period concerning which he wrote.

Tikhmenief, Vol. 1, p. 327, and Vol. 11, p. 221.

And 10 pounds.

And 6 pounds.

6 And 16 pounds.

6 And 21 pounds.

7 And 34 pounds.

8 Tenth Census Report of the United States, Report on the the Population, Industries, and Resources of Alaska, p. 61. See, generally, this report for greater details as to the whole of the foregoing.

Recapitulation of the foregoing as to fur-seals exported between 1743 and 1867.

[blocks in formation]

Fur-seal skins taken from the Pribilof Islands between the years 1868 and 1891.

[blocks in formation]

Extract from Report on the Resources of Alaska, published by the Bureau of Statistics of the United States Treasury Department, 1890.

A brief estimate of the value of permanent improvements in Alaska has been compiled from such sources as could be made available. No attempt at even approximate assessment has ever been made. Real estate can hardly be said to exist in a country as yet without provision for acquiring title to anything but mining claims.

[blocks in formation]

A very interesting summary of the value of products obtained from Alaska from the time of its purchase to the year of 1889 will serve to elucidate the value of this vast territory which we acquired for the paltry sum of $7,200,000, and which has returned over $60,000,000 within twenty-three years. The value of products of the whale fishery has been omitted from this summary as belonging more properly to San Francisco and New Bedford.

During the time covered by this statement the United States Treasury has drawn $5,955,535,07 from the same source, and on the large proportion of fur-seal skins which have been returned dressed and dyed to this country a duty of 20 per cent has been received.

For reasons already given, this total only represents the skins of which records were kept, which records, especially in early times, were very imperfect.

2 Thomas F. Morgan, Vol. 11, p. 63.

3 Tenth Census, Report on the population, etc., of Alaska, p. 61.

4 Emil Teichmann. Vol. II, p. 585.

5 For this and succeeding years down to 1889, inclusive, see Max Heilbronner, Vol. II, pp. 117, 167.

A

Charles J. Goff, Vol. 11, p. 112.

7 Emil Teichmann, Vol. II, p. 585.

Value of products obtained from Alaska from the time of its purchase to the year 1890.

[blocks in formation]

REVENUE DERIVED FROM THE ALASKAN SEAL HERD.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

June 10, 1852.

SIR: In reply to your request of the 8th instant I have the honor to trausmit herewith a statement of the revenue derived from the lease of the islands of St. Paul and St. George, Alaska, from 1871 to 1891, inclusive.

Respectfully, yours,

CHARLES FOSTER,

Secretary.

Department of State.

Hon. JOHN W. FOSTER,

Statement of the revenue derived by the Government of the United States from the lease of the islands of St. Paul and St. George, Alaska.

[blocks in formation]

It will be seen by reference to the statement' sworn to by Joseph Ullmann and others, furriers, of New York City:

First: That upon a catch of 100,000 seals at the Pribilof Islands, about 70,000 have, after dressing and dyeing in London, been annually, during the last ten years, returned to the United States.

Second: That the average value of each skin so returned was $25. The total value of skins so imported would therefore be, during ten years, $17,500,000.

The customs duty received therefrom by the United States Government is 20 per cent of this sum, or, for ten years, $3,500,000; and it is within bounds to say that for the past twenty years the above-mentioned duty amounted in all to $5,000,000.

[merged small][ocr errors]

DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE.

CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT.

Correspondence of the years 1822-1825 relative to ukase of 1821, and to the treaties of 1824 and 1825

Correspondence between the United States and Great Britain relative to the seizure of British sealing vessels in Bering Sea in 1886 and 1887... Correspondence relative to proposed international measures for the protection of fur-seals (1887-1888.)...

Correspondence relative to and growing out of the seizure of British sealing vessels in Bering Sea in 1889 (August 24, 1889, to January 22, 1890) Correspondence relative to proposed international measures for the proof fur-seals-continued—(February 10, 1890, to June 27, 1890) Correspondence relative to the jurisdictional rights in Bering Sea formerly possessed by Russia and transferred to the United States by the treaty of of 1867 (Mr. Blaine's note of June 30, 1890)..........

Pages.

132-152

153-163

168-194

195-203

204-223

224-235

Correspondence relative to Great Britain's willingness to enter into a convention for the protection of fur-seals (June 30, 1890, to July 19, 1890)... 236-242 Correspondence relative to the jurisdictional rights in Bering Sea formerly possessed by Russia and transferred to the United States by the treaty of 1867-continued-(August 2, 1890, to April 14, 1891).. Correspondence relative to the modus vivendi of 1891 and to the negotiations for arbitration (April 20, 1891, to February 8, 1892) Correspondence relative to the modus vivendi of 1892 (February 9, 1892, to March 26, 1892) .

242-298

298-350

351-364

131

« PreviousContinue »