The San Francisco call., 1898-02-14

ITNALASKA, Alaska, Dec. 23 (vla Seattle Feb. 13).-Colonel Joseph Murray, United States Treasury Agent in charge of the seal islands. Messrs. Redpath and Johnson and Dr. Chap man of the North American Commer- cial Company, with boatload of na- tiyes. came out to see us upon the ar rival of the Bear Colonel Murray gives us the first positive information with regard to the success or the ex- Deriments conducted during the last two years in branding the female seals. It was feared that the rough treatment that necessarily goes with burning a great brand into the backs of the ami mals would drive them away from the rookeries and cause them to seek some other breeding place. During the summer of 1896 a number of female seal pups were branded with red-hot irons in such a manner as to forever destroy the value of the skin. Different designs were used in order to dis tinguish the pups from the several par ticular rookeries and from the different islands.
 All during the present season. a. though the work of branding was per severed in, no results of the previous years work, so far as was known at the time, were apparent. But 1t ap- pears that, late in the fall, a goodly number of the yearlings, last year S pups, branded at that time, returned to the rookeries on St. Paul Island. Two were killed and skinned, in order to send their belts, one to Professor David Starr Jordan, head of the seal expert commission, the other to the Secretary of the Treasury at Washington.
 The seal question now stands in a fair way to be settled with or without the help of Great Britain or any other nation. For, with the female seals branded in such a manner that the skins are valueless and with the bach elor seals herded in the salt lagoon on St Paul Island until the weather be- comes too bad for pelagic sealing, there will be no profit in the business for the sealing schooners. And we can easily protect the herd from raiders on the islands, within or without the six ty-mile prohibited area
 The fur question is more or less a matter of fashion, however. We may on that account be beaten yet. Sup pose Mrs. Grundy should declare In fa- vor of wearing branded fur sealskin cloaks? All our trouble would have been in vain. No woman would look at one that is not branded, and the Victoria sealers would be in their glory.
 In the skins under consideration the brands are clear and distinct. Not a vestige of hair or fur remains in the wake of the iron, although the mark is at least a year old. Colonel Murray is delighted with this excellent result, as he was one of the first advocates of the branding process, besides having done the branding with his own fair hands.
 The next morning at 6:30 o'clock we got under way and headed for St. George Island. At 11:30 we stopped off the village landing, but found the surf too high for a safe landing. They sig naled, Try Garden Cove" So around to the other side of the island we went and anchored off the beach. Lieuten- ant Hamlet went into the landing in one whaleboat and, anchoring outside of the surf, veered in toward the beach. When near enough he threw them a line attached to a keg contain ing mail for the island. In the other whaleboat I lay just outside of him, in order to pick him up should his boat capsiZe. We had orders to land on the beach on no account, so we could not get their mail.
 On our return to the ship, and I re- gret to state that Hamlet's crew beat mine in an impromptu race to the ves- sel, we got under way at 2:35 p. m. and squared away for Unalaska. Yester- day, December 22, at 12:50 p. m., we made fast to the wharf at Dutch Har- Dor and landed MT. Baldwin.