24 ALASKA. 



of scarcity of fuel, they use a ^reat amount of hard bread, soda 

 aud sweet crackers, instead of buying flour and baking it. 



They are remarkably attached to their church, which is w^ell 

 adapted to them, and no other form of religion could be better 

 or have a firmer hold upon the sensibilities of the people. 

 Their chastity and sobriet^^ cannot be commended. 



As parents, they are very indulgent while their children are 

 infants or under the age of eight or nine years, but when this age 

 is attained by their offspring they become harsh disciplinarians 

 and task-masters, putting burdens upon young shoulders that are 

 heavy enough for adults, always exacting implicit obedience. 

 Though many children are born, the mothers are not successful in 

 rearing them, for they are extremely negligent in regard to air 

 and diet, irregular in their meals and slumbers, shiftless and un- 

 clean, and they frequently indulge in intoxication while nurs- 

 ing their infants. These vices cause an excessive mortality 

 among the children. The Aleuts are dependent entirely upon 

 themselves, except at the Seal Islands, for relief aud aid in 

 case of illness, yielding themselves to such treatment as they 

 can get with the utmost patience and resignation. They believe 

 generally in a mild form of Shamanism, or in the laying on of 

 hands, which is practiced usually by old women. 



The average Aleut is a bold, hardy trapper, as he must be to 

 be successful as a sea-otter hunter, and this is the only profes- 

 sion or calling that his country can offer him. He is a patient, 

 steady workman, and supplies as good manual labor as could 

 be desired, and such as is required in the country-. The Kussians 

 made sailors, navigators, carpenters, blacksmiths, store-keepers, 

 cS:c., of this race ; but since the transfer of the Territory there 

 are too many of our own people of that class idle for the Aleuts 

 to compete with, and who come directly into the country in re- 

 sponse to any demand for such labor, so that he falls back upon 

 the sea-otter as his sole support agiiinst a relapse into barbar- 

 ism. Competition in this business he has no occasion to ll-ar 

 from the white man, who would never consent to spend the 

 same amount of skill and energy for the returns which satisfy 

 the Aleutian hunter. 



It will therefore be evident that the good condition of the na- 

 tive hunters of this Territory is a matter of great importance 

 to the traders who have any deei) interest in the fur-trade ; and 

 it is not remarkable, in view of the clearness of the case, as above 

 stated, that the Aleuts to-day are existing in greater comfort, 



