ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 263 



no matter which, they inaiiitaiu or affect a stolid resignation, and are 

 patient to positive apathy. This is not due to deficiency of nervons 

 organization, because those among them who exlubit examples of intense 

 liveliness and nervous activity behave just as stolidly when ill as their 

 more lymphatic townsmen do. Boys and girls, men and women, all 

 alike are patient and resigned when ailing and under treatment; but it is 

 a bad feature, after all, inasmuch as it is well-nigh impossible to rally a 

 very sick man who himself has no hope, and who seems to mutely 

 deprecate every effort to save his life. 



Disposition to gamble. — The inherent propensity of man to gam- 

 ble is developed here to a very appreciable degree, but it in no way 

 whatever suggests the strange gaming love and infatuation with which 

 the Indians and Eskimo elsewhere of Alaska are possessed. The chief 

 delight of the men and boys of the two villages is to stand on the street 

 corners '^pitching" half dollars; so devoted, indeed, have I found the 

 native mind to this haphazard sport that frequently I would detect 

 groups of them standing out in pelting gales of wind and of rain "shy- 

 ing" the silver coin at the little dirt-driven pegs. A few of them, men 

 and women, play cards v/ith much skill and intelligence. 



Children's sports. — Tlie urchins play marbles, si)in tops, and fly 

 kites intermittently with all the feverish energy displayed by the youth 

 of our own surroundings; they frolic at baseball and use "shinny" 

 sticks with much volubility and activity. The girls are, however, much 

 more repressed, and though they have a few games and play quietly 

 with quaintly dressed dolls, yet they do not appear to be possessed of 

 that usual feminine animation so conspicuously marked in our home life. 



Attachment to the islands. — The attachment which the natives 

 have for their respective islands was well shown to me in 1874. Then, 

 a number of St. George people were taken over to St. Paul temporarily 

 to do the killing incidental to a reduction of the quota of 25,000 for their 

 island and a corresponding increase at St. Paul; they became homesick 

 immediately, and were never tired of informing the St. Paul natives 

 that St. George was a far handsomer and more enjoyable island to live 

 upon; that walking over the long sand reaches of "Pavel" made their 

 legs grievously weary, and that the whole effect of this change of resi- 

 dence was "ochen scootchnie." Naturally the ire of the St. Paul peo- 

 ple rose at once and they retorted in kind, indicating the rocky surface 

 of St. George and its great inferiority as a seal island. I Avas surprised 

 at the genuine feeling on both sides, because, as far as I could judge 

 from a residence on each island, it was a clear case of tweedledee and 

 tweedledum between them as to opportunities and climate necessary 

 for a pleasurable existence. The natives themselves are of one and 

 common stock, though the number of Creoles on St. George is relatively 

 much larger than on St. Paul; consequently the tone of the St. George 

 village is rather more sprightly and vivacious. 



Creature comforts. — As far as a purely physical existence goes, 

 the American method of living on and in the climate of the Pribilof 

 Islands is highly conducive to strength and health. Tea and coffee, 

 seasoned with condensed milk and lump sugar; hot biscuits, cakes, and 

 waffles; potatoes, served in every method of cookery; salt salmon, 

 codfish, and corned beef; mess pork; and, once a week, afresh roast of 

 beef or steaks; all the canned vegetables and fruits; all the potted 

 sauces, jams, and jellies; pies, puddings, and pastries; and the exhaust- 

 ive list of purely seafaring dishes, such as pea and bean, barley and 

 rice soups, curries, and macaroni; these constitute the staples and 

 many of the luxuries with which the agents of the Alaska Commercial 



