ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 137 



George the " holliischickie " are regularly driven to that northeast 

 slope of the village hill which drops down gently to the sea, where 

 they are slaughtered close by and under the houses, as at St. Paul. 

 Those droveswhich are brought in from the North Rookery to the 

 west, and also Starry Ateel, are frequently driven right through the 

 village itself. This slaughtering field of St. George is hard tufa and 

 rocky, but it slopes down to the ocean rapidly enough to drain itself 

 well; hence the constant rain and humid fogs of summer carry off 

 that which Avould soon clog and deprive the natives from using tlie 

 ground year after year in rotation, as they do. Several seasons have 

 occurred, liowever, when this natural cleansing of the ground above 

 mentioned has not been as thorougli as must be to be used again 

 immediately. Then tlie seals were skinned liack of the village hill 

 and in the ravine to the west on the same slope from the summit. 



This village site of St. George to-day, and the killing grounds adjoin- 

 ing, used to be, during early Russian occupation, in Priliilof's time, a 

 large sea-lion rookery, the finest one known to either island, St. Paul or 

 St.George. Natives are living tliere who told me that their fathers had 

 been employed in shooting and driving these sea lions so as to delib- 

 erately break up the breeding ground, and thus rid the island of what 

 they considered a suj)erabundant supply of tlie Eumetopias, and 

 thereby to aid and encourage the fresh and increased accession of fur 

 seals from the vast majority peculiar to St. Paul, which could not take 

 place while the sea lions held the land.^ 



LIFE HISTORY OF THE SEA LION. 



Natural inferiority to the fur seal. — This animal, also a 

 characteristic pinniped of the Pribilof Islands, ranks much below the 

 fur seal in perfected physical organization and intelligence. It can, 

 as well as its more sagacious and valuable relative, the Ccdlorhlrms, 

 be seen, perhaps, to better advantage on these islands than elsewhere 

 in the whole world that I know of. The marked difference between 



' The St. Paul village site is located wholly on the northern slope of the village 

 hill, where it drops from its greatest elevation, at the flagstaff, of I'Jo feet, gently 

 down to the sandy killing flats below and between it and the main body of the 

 island. The houses are all placed facing the north at regular intervals along the 

 terraced streets, which rim soutlieast and northwest. There are 74 or 80 native 

 houses, 10 large and smaller buildings of the company, the Treasury agent "s resi- 

 dence; the church, the cemetery crosses, and the school building are all standing 

 here in coals of pure white paint. The survey of the town site v.'hen rebuilt was 

 made by Mr. H. W. Mclntyre, of the Alaska Commercial Company, who himself 

 planned and devised the entire reconstruction. No offal or decaying refuse of any 

 kind is allowed to stand around the dwellings or lie in the streets. It required 

 much determined effort on the part of the whites to effect this sanitary reform, 

 but now most of the natives take equal pride in keeping their surroundings clean 

 and unpolluted. The site of the St. George settlement is more ex])osed and l)leak 

 than is the one we have just referred to on St. Paul. It is planted directly on the 

 rounded summit, of one of the first low hills that rise from the sea on the north 

 shore: indeed, it is the only hill that does slope directly and gently to the salt 

 water on the island. Here are 24 to oO native cottages laid with tlieir doors facing 

 the opposite sides of a short street between, running also east and west, as at St. 

 Paul. There, however, each house looks down upon the rear of its neighbor in 

 front and below. Here the houses face each other on the top of the hill. The 

 Treasury agent's quarters, the company's G or 7 buildings, the schoolhouse, and 

 the church are all neatly painted, and this settlement, from its prominent position, 

 shows from the sea to a much better advantage than does the larger one of St. Paul. 

 The same municipal sanitary regulations are enforced here. Those who may visit 

 the St. George and St. Paul "of to-day will find the streets dry and hard as floors. 

 They have been covered with a thick layer of volcanic cinders on both islands. 



