Sealskin Sale

In the spring when thousands of amorously barking seals follow their lovesick fancies up the coasts of Oregon and Washington toward the Pribilof Islands, their mating grounds, the U. S. sends its Coast Guard to escort them, allows them to be killed only by aborigines in canoes, using spears and harpoons. Last spring Indians killed 2,000 of a herd of over a million and thus collected their lawful share of the sealing rights. In the summer natives of the Pribilof Islands are hired by the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries to drive inland thousands of bachelor bull seals, knock them over the head, stick them through the heart. Down to St. Louis go the skins to be sold at auction by the Government. Last week the U. S. auctioned off some 15,000 skins, collected $282,640. Of this, 15% will be paid to Canada, 15% to Japan. The rest represents a tidy profit to the U. S. on a shrewd investment in Alaskan real estate.

The U. S. paid Russia $7,200,000 for Alaska in 1867. In the first 40 years the Government made nearly one and one-half times that amount by leasing the privilege of killing seals on the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, which are a part of Alaska. By then the herd of seals was sadly depleted, so the U. S. made a treaty with Japan, Great Britain and Russia which gave the U. S. exclusive rights to the Pribilof herd. Japan and Great Britain each got 15% of the skins for leaving the seals alone on their way to the islands. Russia, which owned a herd of its own on the Commander Islands, got nothing. Indians were awarded the unique privilege of hunting the Pribilof seals on their way north--provided they did not use firearms or motor boats. Under these restrictions the seals began to multiply again, the shrewd U. S. kept on collecting profits. In 20 years the U. S. Treasury made two million dollars from the sale of sealskins after paying Japan and Great Britain and letting the Indians spear their share.

Depression had its effect on the auction last week. Prices averaged about $22 per skin, lower than last year's. It takes six or seven skins to make a woman's coat. With some ten thousand more skins to sell Oct. 12, the U. S. will probably make about $350,000 this year.

Conductor of last week's auction was Ward T. Bower, chief of the Alaskan Division of the Bureau of Fisheries. Long an expert on the seal industry, he joined the Bureau in 1903, has since made twelve trips to Alaska to see how things were going. Proud of Alaska's seals, he wants no confusion between this fur-bearing variety (Callorhinus alascanus) and the common hair-seal. Alaska has 80% of the world's fur seals. Besides seals, the Pribilof Islands are well stocked with foxes. From these the U. S. gets another item of profit--$27,735 from 777 foxes in the fiscal year 1931.

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