Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Chapter XIX.
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and on the adjacent Copper Island (Mednie) it is
frequently found, and is protected by just such laws as
Nordenskjold demands for its preservation.
The greatest number of marine animals here were
found to belong to the family of eared seals (Otariidæ);
namely, the sea-lion (Eumetopias Stelleri), from which
oil is obtained, and the fur-seal (Callorhinus ursinus),
which is still the world’s most important fur-bearing
animal. Since the close of the last century, the Russian
government has with great care sought to protect this animal,
and has built up a national enterprise which yields a large
annual income, and which makes it possible for the
Russo-American company which has a lease of the business, to
kill annually about 30,000 seals and still increase the stock.
On this point, too, Nordenskjöld’s statements are
unreliable and misleading. He puts the annual catch much too
high, which, at the time, caused no slight trouble between
the Russian government and the company.[1]
On the whole, it seems humiliating to West Europe
that it is only decried and tyrannical Russia that has
understood how to protect this useful animal. When
Russian America, the present Alaska, in 1867 was sold
to the United States, some of the best seal fisheries, the
Pribyloff Islands, were a part of the purchase. The
United States has found it profitable to retain the
Russian regulations for seal hunting, for those small islands
alone yield the interest on the sum paid for the whole
territory.
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