640 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



(5) a smokehouse for smoking meat and fish; (6) a bathhouse accord- 

 ing to the northern Eussian pattern; (7) a cold storehouse underground 

 for the preservation of game caught in the summer, and for seal meat 

 and seal oil; (8) quarters for Eskimos that come here, so that they do 

 not have to lodge with our apprentices, as they have had to do the 

 past year. It is impossible to keep them out without constant watch- 

 ing; (9) a house for boats and implements, where such things can be 

 kept during the winter. The boats particularly are very much dam- 

 aged by standing out in the snow all winter long. 



How soon the houses here mentioned will be finished I am unable to 

 say, but we will keep on working at them until the cold weather sets 

 in, unless we should receive instructions to the contrary from you. 



The furniture belonging to the station consists of some stools, which 

 are in the same splendid condition as when I assumed charge. The tools 

 and other implements are in fine condition, thanks to our blacksmith 

 and the blacksmith shop. Of the rifles and other weapons sent, one 

 shotgun is unfit for use, and it was so utterly dilapidated on my arrival 

 that it can not be put in order outside of a gunsmith shop, consequently 

 I will send it to the United States next fall. You doubtless perceived 

 last fall when you were here there was only one rifle in a condition 

 fit to be used. My father at once began repairing, and in the course of 

 the winter he has put all the weapons and hundreds of other imple- 

 ments in good order. 



I seize this opportunity of mentioning some little things and events 

 which have occurred at the station and in its vicinity. Some of these 

 things will be mentioned in the log book, but I think it worth while to 

 repeat them here. 



The four Eskimo police appointed at this station last year I dis- 

 charged upon my arrival and no new police have since been appointed. 

 When I first heard of this system of police, I formed a favorable impres- 

 sion of it, but after thinking the matter over more carefully my mind 

 was changed and the result was that I discharged the police. We need 

 no police for our personal protection. How far the station and school 

 ought to have a police ofiBcer is a question which I will not at this time 

 discuss, but under all the circumstances such a police should consist of 

 civilized men who are supposed to have some idea of right and wrong, 

 and not barbarians utterly without any idea of these things. Further- 

 more, one policeman instead of four would be sufficient. One of the 

 four policemen who last year received pay from the station shot his 

 neighbor last winter because he had stolen five reindeer skins from him. 

 This murder occurred only a few yards from the station. The four 

 policemen had a compensation of 20 sacks of flour for the year. The 

 value of these I made use of in distributing things as Christmas pres- 

 ents among our Eskimo neighbors. I made up packages containing a 

 few pounds of flour, a few pounds of beans, and bread for each family 

 in the neighborhood, and on Christmas Eve I sent for a man from each 

 family to come and get the bundles. They went home with happy faces 



