The Cordova daily times., 1921-07-13

The EngllSh ana American sea cap
 tains who visited Prince William Sound and the Alexander archipelago previous to Nancouver's voyage reap
 ed the most aboundant harvest of sea otters in that section of the territory,
 as many as 2,00O skins being secured by single vessel in one season: and
 at the beginning of the present cen tury Baranof estimated that 120,00 sea otters were carried away by for eigners." The prices even at that early day were remarkably high, and we find instances of 10 and 12 blank cts, and even $40 in cash, having been paid for a single skin. The Russians, who were compelled to transport all
 their trading goods across the Asiatic
 continent and then by ships from Ok
 hotsk, were not slow to discover that
 it was impossible to compete in trade with their English and American riv-
 als. The valuable animal was rapidly
 becoming extinct in the more acces-
 sible hunting grounds, and Baranof
 concluded to extend the old policy of
 hunting, in preference to trading, to
 the sea otter ground of the south
 east. He summoned large numbers Of Aleuts and natives of Kodiak, with their bidarkas, and pre-emptorily or
 dered them to proceed to his new settlement at Sitka. hunting on the
 way Parties composed of 600 and
 500 canoes each set out upon this per ilous journey of over a thousand miles.
 following the line of the coast One
 third of the fleet was lost on the way.
 Some of the natives were surprised
 hy violent storms in crossing the open
 sea from one promontory to another,
 while others suffered death at the
 hands of hostile Indians of tho main
 land, Those who finally reached
 their destination were divided into
 smaller parties and sent out to hunt
 in the intricate inlets streams, and
 forests of the country Some never returned to report either their sue cess or their losses. The assuciation of Siberian merchants organized in l7S5 to carry on the fur trade of the
 North Pacific has the favor of the Empress Catharinct but the first formal charter was granted by the
 Emperor Paul in l799. When hunt
 ing in that region became no longer profitable the Russian-American com
 pany continued to purchase of the In dians a few sea otters killed by them i but owing to the vicinity of the Hud-
 son Bay Company the prices paid for these skins were exceedingly high
 While the Aleut and Kodiak Innuit who were COMpelied to hunt for the company received but $l0 for the very 1 best grade of sea otter, the independ- ent tolinket sold the same quality for $3O and $40 at Sitka. The manager of the Russian company acknowledged that no profit was derived in these | transactions; that the skins were pur. | chased only to prevent their acQuisi-
 ton by the Hudson Bay Company.
 On the Aleutian islands the killing
 of sea-otter was brought into system
 and ordered as soon as the Russian American company obtained control
 of the country by their charter of 1799
 At first the company claimed the right to employ the Aleutain hunters
 in the pursuit of the sea otter without
 any compensation beyond their sub sistence, as an offset to their exemp-
 tion from imperial taxes and other duties. This profitable but unjust procedure was abolished by the Elm peror Alexander 1, and the company
 was instructed to pay the Aleutian
 hunters for every skin deposited in the company's storehouses The Elm peror's manifesto was compiled with, bul iuc pINc pdld to lHc HituldlH
 hunters for sea otter skins was re-
 diculously small, only 10 rubles of colonial script of leather currency be- ing paid to the hunter for a first class
 skin, and he was required to furnish his own subsistence, with the excep-
 ton of a few articles of luxury--a very small quantity of flour and to-
 bacco. Even in those early times the
 Russian American company realized
 from $50 to $1OO for their skins in the
 markets of Asia and Europe.
 When the Russian hunters and
 traders first advanced from the coast
 of Asia along the Aleutian chain of