The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1874-02-09
An IMPORTANT BILL.

at the hands OF the public press than Its
intrinsic Importance demands. 1t provides
for the appointment, by the Secretary OF
the Treasury, of competent special
agent to visit. the various trading sta
tons and Indian villages of Alaska Terri.
tory, as well as the seal islands and the
large islands to the north of them in the
Behring sea, for the purpose of collecting
and reporting valuable authentic informa-
ton in regard to the fur-bearing animals OF
that region, and the people or tribes
upon whom the successful prosecu-
ton of the fur trade is de-
pendent. Such information is not only
greatly needed by the department specially
charged with the duty of looking after the
customable goods and merchandise of the
country, but would be Of no small value
to thepublic generally.
AT the time of the purchase of Alaska
by our government, but very little was
known by our people of the resources Of
Russian America, Or OF the character Of the
people inhabting those northern regions.
Aside from the information meagerly im-
parted by the Russian Imperial Navy, and
the imperfect accounts of one or two
English explorers, the best read Americans
knew but little of these Russian possessions.
So entirely ignorant were some of
our best writers Of the actual topography
OF the country that, when Cotton and
Johnson's "great family atlas " was
brought out by leading New York pub
fishing house in 1868, the very careful
compllers of that work emptied the Yukon,
or chief river Of Alaska, into the Arctic
sea, at longitudinal point of about $50
degrees west from Greenwich, when it
actually empties into the Behring sea,
south of Norton Sound, and nearly fifteen
degrees west Of the point indicated by the
great family atlas.'
Mr.. Stewards mania for icebergs, snow
fields, polar bears, seals and walrus,
proved fertile theme for lampoon and
taking caricature, for two or three years
after the Alaska purchase was made; but
we have only to consult the best Eng
lsh authorities Chose accessible at the
time of the purchase) to satisfy us that
Mr.. Seward made anything but bad
bargain in his negotiations with the Russian
government. by the conveyance of the
Aleutian groups Of islands -four in number)
our government secures as good title to
the valuable Fl fisheries of the Behring sea
as England can claim between her more
commanding head-lands off Nova Scotia
and Newfoundland, since line drawn
from the most westward of these
islands to Diomed island at the straights,
embraces not only the chief extent of the
sea, but the most important islands therein.
For the last thirty years, American whalers
have penetrated the Behring and Arctic
seas in the summer months, and
secured large cargoes of oil,
whalebone, and walrns teeth, as
well as valuable purchases in furs of the
natives, notwithstanding the monopoly &C.
corded the Russian American Fur Com
pany, upon whose rights they seemed to
have trespassed both with audacty and
immunity. This monopoly ceased to exist,
as matter of course, after the treaty of
purchase was concluded.
But, so far as the seal fisheries are con-
ecrned, the Alaska Commercial Company
succeeded to the old Russian Fur Company's
BY the terms Of an act Of |
Congress passed in 1SG9-'70. contract
was awarded to this commercial company
for the exclusive right to take seals in the
Behrng sea for the term of twenty years,
heir proposals being considered at the time
the most favorable Of any offered to the
8 ,vernment. This monopoly has givenrise
% no small complaint, but the grant was
made on the recommendation OF the Cen
,ral then commanding the military division
If the Pacific, who strongly urged the sale
,f the seal islands of st. Paul and st.
George, lying north of the Fox groupe of
he Aleutian islands. and now important
rading stations in the Bshring sea. As
N evidence of the value of these seal
sheries, the President states, in his an
Iual message of 1870, that no less than
ighty-six thousand seal skins were re- Q
eived at San Francisco during the previous |
ear, on which the owners paid one dollar !
ach as required by the act in question. q
low rapidly this branch of our fisheries I
as since increased, we have not the in G
at hand to state /; but there is
very reason to believe that the company
as not been backward in pushing it's ad-
antages, since reports have come to us
lat they were making such havoc among
he seals as seriously To threaten their en-
re determination by the expiration of the L
,rio1 for which the contract was awarded /
appears, however, from the report of Mr.. !,
ecretary Boutwell,, made in December, V
81, that this company had, up to that
me, conducted its business in conformity y
the terms of the contract awarded, al -
ough this information was given simply 3
J the authority of the local agent at St. V
aul and st. George islands, where the
A. a Al