ALASKA INDUSTRIES. . 31 



black hair, small, neatly shaped feet and hands, together with brown- 

 ish-yellow complexion. The men will average in statnre 5 feet 4 or 5 

 inches; the women less in proportion, although there are exceptions to 

 this rule among them, some being over (5 feet in height, and others are 

 decided dwarfs. The manners and customs of these people to-day 

 Ijossess nothing in themselves of a barbarous or remarkable character, 

 aside from that which belongs to an advanced state of semicivilization. 

 The}^ are exceedingly polite and civil, not only in their business with 

 the agents of the company on the seal islands, but among themselves 

 and they visit, the one with the other, freely and i^leasantly, the 

 women being great gossips. But, on the whole, their intercourse is 

 subdued, for the simple reason that the topics of conversation are 

 few, and, judging from their silent but unconstrained meetings, they 

 seem to have a mutual knowledge, as if l3y symj)ath3^, as to what may 

 be occupying each other's minds, rendering speech superfluous. It 

 is only when under the influence of beer or strong liquor that they 

 lose their naturally quiet and amiable disposition. They then relapse 

 into low, drunken orgies and loud, brawling noises. Having been so 

 long under the control and influence of the Russians, they have 

 adopted many Sclavic customs, such as giving birthday dinners, nam- 

 ing their children, etc. They are remarkably attached to their church, 

 and no other form of religion could be better adapted to or have a firmer 

 hold upon the sensibilities of the people. Their inherent chastity and 

 sobriety can not be commended. They have long since thrown away 

 the uncouth garments of the Russian rule — the shaggy dog-skin caps, 

 with coats half seal and half sea lion — for a complete outfit cap-a-pie, 

 such as our own people buj^ in any furnishing house; the same boots, 

 socks, underclothing, and clotliing, with ulsters and ulsterettes; but 

 the violence of the wind prevents their selecting the hats of our haut 

 ton and sporting fraternity. As for the women, they too have kept 

 pace and even advanced to the level of the men, for in these lower 

 races there is much more vanity displaj^ed by the masculine element 

 than the feminine, according to my observation. In other words, I 

 have noticed a greater desire among the young men than among the 

 young women of savage and semicivilized people to be gaily dressed 

 and to look fine. But the visits of the wives of our Treasury officials 

 and tlie company's agents to these islands during the last ten years, 

 bringing with them a full outfit, as ladies ahvays do, of everything 

 under the sun that women want to wear, has given the native female 

 mind an undue expansion up there and stimulated it to unwonted 

 activity. They watch the cut of the garments and borrow the pat- 

 terns, and some of them are very expei't dressmakers to-day. When 

 the Russians controlled affairs, the women were the hewers of the 

 driftwood and the drawers of the water. At St. Paul tliere was no 

 well of drinking fluid about the village, nor within half a mile of the 

 village; there was no drinking Avater unless it was caught in cisterns, 

 and the cistern water, owing to the particles of seal-fat soot which 

 fall upon the roofs of the houses, is rendered undrinkable, so that 

 the supply for the town, until quite recentl}', used to be carried by 

 the women from two little lakes at the head of the lagoon, a mile and 

 a half, as the crow flies, from the village, and right under Telegraph 

 Hill. This is quite a journey, and when it is remembered that they 

 drink so much tea, and that water has to go with it, some idea of the 

 labor of the old and young females can be derived from an inspection 

 of the map. Latterly, within the last four or five years, the company 

 have opened a spring less than half a mile from the " gorodej" which 



