20 ALASKA INDUSTRIES, 



wheu the Alaska Commercial Company has fixed the price to be paid to 

 the natives at 40 cents i)er skin and the advance on San Francisco 

 j)rices of commodities brought to the islands at only 25 per cent, the 

 above figure of costs will be considerably increased. Some increase of 

 costs will be occasioned by the obligations assumed on the part of the 

 company as to the establishment and keeping of gratuitous schools for 

 the natives, and also by certain additional advantages vouchsafed to the 

 natives, as appears from the instructions of the company to its agents, 

 a copy whereof is herewith submitted. So that in future the actual cost 

 of each seal skin rendered at London will amount to no less than $2, 

 exclusive of the pro rata of the rental and the tax imposed by the 

 conditions of the lease. 



The fat or blubber of all the seals killed for their skins is not more 

 than sufiicient to supply the want of fuel at the islands. Although every 

 chip of driftwood is carefully collected by the natives and brought with 

 great pains to the village from the remotest points, almost all of it is 

 used up in the repairs continually required by the rapidly decaying 

 woodwork of their miserable dwellings, and only a small quantity may 

 be reserved for the purpose of kindling the seal- blubber fires. The sum- 

 mer temperature at the islands being 45° and the mean temperature of 

 the year about 38°, the dwellings, which are nothing better than cellars 

 covered with turf, have to be heated all the year round. Notwithstand- 

 ing the enormous quantity of seal blubber consumed at the islands, a 

 considerable amount of it might be converted into seal oil for exi)orta- 

 tion. Thousands of old bulls, which have become useless for the pur- 

 poses of propagation and are an incumbrance to the rookeries, might be 

 killed for their blubber, and thus a new and i^rofitable article of trade 

 added to the resources of the islands. Unfortunately, the market price 

 of seal oil is lower than the tax offered on this article by the competitors 

 for the lease of the islands, and consequently this branch of industry 

 has no chance of being developed. 



The population of the islands, numbering 240 on St. Paul and 125 on 

 St. George, are mostly Aleutes, some half-breeds, and a few descendants 

 of Kamchadales brought over from Kamchatka by the vessels of the 

 Russian-American Company. Their mother tongue is the Aleutian — a 

 language spoken with slight variations all over the Aleutian islands 

 and the southeast coast of the Alaskan peninsula. The Russian lan- 

 guage is understood by all and is intelligently spoken by many. They 

 all belong to the Greco-Russian Catholic Church, and are sincerely 

 attached to their religion. 



According to the statement of the natives of the islands of St. Paul 

 and St. George, a notable improvement in their material welfare has taken 

 place sincetiietransfer of the Territory to the United States. Still, their 

 l)rosperity is far from being in harmony with the importance of their 

 share in the production of wealth. Their dwellings — damp,iusalubrious 

 hovels, constructed of driftwood and sods — are particularly in painful 

 contrast with all other conditions of their life. There being no building 

 materials at the islands, the natives are unable to accomplish any con- 

 siderable improvement in their system of building without assistance on 

 the i)art of the Government. 



The prevalence of inflammatory diseases of the lungs, mostly due to 

 the miserable condition of dwellings, requires the presence of a medical 

 practitioner at each island. The recall this summer of the United States 

 troops, and therewith of the contract doctors who were attached to the 

 military posts at the islands, leaves the population without medical 

 assistance. Some provision toward supplying this want is absolutely 



