ALASKA INDUSTEIES. 33 



of flour at the same time. Of tobacco they are allowed 50 pounds per 

 week; candles, 75 pounds; rice, 50 pounds. They burn, strange as it 

 may seem, kerosene oil here to the exclusion of the seal fat, which 

 literally overruns the island. They ignite and consume over 600 gal- 

 lons of kerosene oil a year in the village of St. Paul alone. They do 

 not fancy vinegar very much; perhaps 50 gallons a year is used 

 up there. Mustard and pepper are sparingly used, 1 to 1^ pounds 

 a week for the whole village. Beans they peremptorily reject; for 

 some reason or other they can not be induced to use them. Those 

 who go about the vessels contract a taste for split-pea soup, and a few 

 of them are sold in the village store. Salt meat, beef or pork, they 

 will take reluctantly if it is given to and pressed upon them, but 

 they will never buy it. I remember, in this connection, seeing two 

 barrels of prime salt pork and a barrel of prime mess salt beef opened 

 in the company's store shortly after my arrival in 1872, and, though 

 the people of the village were invited to help themselves, I think I am 

 right in saying that the barrels were not emptied when I left the 

 island in 1873. They use very little coffee during the year — not more 

 than 100 pounds — but of tea a great deal. I do not know exactly — 

 I can not find among my notes a record as to this article — but I can 

 say that they do not drink less than a gallon of tea apiece per diem. 

 The amount of this beverage which they sip from the time they rise in 

 the morning until they go to bed late at night is astounding. Their 

 "samovars," and latterly the regular teakettles of our American 

 make, are bubbling and boiling from the moment the housewife 

 stirs herself at daybreak until the fire goes out when they sleep. It 

 should be stated in this connection that they are supplied with a 

 regular allowance of coal every year by the company gratis, each 

 family being entitled to a certain amount, which alone, if economically 

 used, keeps them warm all winter in their new houses; but for those 

 who are extravagant and are itching to spend their extra wages an 

 extra supply is always kei:>t in the storehouses of the company for 

 sale. Their appreciation of and desire to possess all the canned fruit 

 that is landed from the steamer is marked to a great degree. If they 

 had the opportunity, I doubt whether a single family on that island 

 to-day would hesitate to bankrupt itself in purchasing this commodity. 

 Potatoes they sometimes demand, as well as onions, and perhaps if 

 these vegetables could be brought here and kept to an advantage the 

 people would soon become very fond of them. (See note, 39, G. ) 



Occupation. — The question is naturally asked: How do these peo 

 pie employ themselves during the long nine months of every year, 

 after the close of the sealing season and until it begins again, when 

 they have little or absolutely nothing to do? It may be answered, 

 that they simply vegetate; or, in other words, are entirely idle, men- 

 tally and physically, during most of this period. But to their credit 

 let it be said, that mischief does not employ their idle hands; they 

 are passive killers of time, drinking tea and sleeping, with a few dis- 

 agreeable exceptions, such as the gamblers. There are a half dozen 

 of these characters at St. Paul, and perhaps as nmny at St. George, 

 who pass whole nights at their sittings, even during the sealing sea- 

 son, playing games of cards, taught by Russians and persons who 

 have been on the island since the^ transfer of the Territory; but the 

 majority of the men, women, and children, not being compelled to 

 exert themselves to obtain any of the chief, or even the least of the 

 necessaries of life, such as tea and hard bread, sleep the greater por- 

 tion of the time, when not busy in eating and in the daily observ- 

 H. Doc. 92, pt. 3 3 



