Evening star., 1917-03-18
Copyright. 1917. by Frank G. Carpenter.)
STEAMSHIP VICTORIA.


STEAMSHIP VICTORIA.
Crossing Bering sea.
= WRITE today of one of the big
gest speculations Uncle Sam ever
made. 1t is one that has paid him
& a profit of 100000 per cent and
which today is worth half again as
much as the amount he paid for Alaska.
refer to the Pribilof Islands. The
whole of Alaska cost US s7.aoo.ooo The
average per acre was just about
cents, and it included these islands.
The Pribilofs have already yielded
more than s1.4o0 an acre, and on that
basis they have netted US 10000
times the amount of their original
cost. They have already brought in
more than s50o0o.oo0 in the sale of
the sealskins taken upon them. and
the government has actually received
more than s10,o0O.O0o. Moreover. the
islands today, as going concern. are
worth about s1o.eoo.0o0. and indica-
tions are that they will steadily in
crease IN value for generations to come.
There are now in the neighborhood
of 100000 fur seals on the Pribilofs, or
there will be that number next sum-
mer, when the animals swim in TO
take possession of their breeding
grounds. OF this number fully 100000
are females. each OF which can be relied
upon to yield one baby a year. OF the
babies one-half will be males whose
skins will some time be sold in the
fur markets of the world, adding to
the enormous product we have already
gotten from the islands. Congress has
recently made such regulations regard
ing the seals that the herds will prob
ably increase steadily from now on,
and these beautiful furs will again be-
come an important factor in the mar
kets of the world.
But what are the Pribiiofs and Just
where do they lie on the map OF the
world? They rocky islands, so
small that they would not make a fly
speck on any chart of the Pacific ocean
the size of a billiard table They have
an area. all told. of less than sixty
square miles. and, by and large. they
are about the most forbidding places
on earth. The islands are volcanic in
origin: they are composed of alternate
stretches of sand and broken rock
which in some cases are backed by
cliffs rising to a height four -fifths that
Of the Washington monument
The islands are situated in the heart
or Berfng sea. The nearest land to
them is the Aleutians, which are over
two hundred miles to the southwark,
and their distance from the mainland
of Alaska is about as far as from Phil
adelphia to Boston. They are in one of
the gloomiest parts of the ocean In
the winter they are surrounded by ice
noes and iceoergs, and in the summer
are clad in an almost perpetual fog
The sun seldom shines upon them and
II Is only by means of the compass and
chart that ships are able to make their
way there.
The islands are five in number; the
most important are St. Paul and st
George, which lie forty miles apart
me others are Otter Island. Walrus
Island and Sea Lion Rock. close 10 the
shores of St Paul St. Paul is about
thirteen miles long and seven miles
wide. St George is twelve miles long.
and four miles wide. The other is
lands are little, more than rocky
patches on the face of the sea
From time immemorial the Pribilofs
have been one Of the chief breeding
piaceh or the fur seal. and since their
discovery they have supplied most of
the sealskins of the world For many
years the fur markets got their seal
skins from different parts of the
southeIn ocean. In the latter part of
the eighteenth century, the chief source
OF supply was the Kerguelen Island
which lies south of the Cape OF Good
Hope and Australia. and about mid
way between the two. Within thirty
years that island produced more than
million skins. and at about the same
time another million came from a little
island on the coast of Chile, close TO
Juan Fernandez, where Robinson Cru
SOC is supposed to have lived Othe
seal isla nds were the Georgian group
and others those of South shetland
Thirteen hundred Thousand skins were
taken from the Georgian Islands and
hundreds of thousands came from the
South Shetlands Others were taken
from an island off the coast of New
South Wales.
All of these great: seal rookeries are
practically exhausted, and today there
are only three of any Importance know
TO the world. One Of these belongs to
Uruguay. one to the Russians and one
to the United States. The nrst Is the