IMPROVEMENT OVER RUSSIAN METHODS OP TAKING. 251 



IMPROVEMENT OVER RUSSIAN METHODS OF TAKING-. 



Page 161 of The Case. 



The methods used by the Alaska Commercial Company and the 

 American Government for the care and preser- 

 vation of the seals were much better than those Eerrick Artomanoff, p. 99. 

 used by the Russian Government. In old Russian 



times we used to drive seals from Northeast Point to the village, a dis- 

 tance of nearly 13 miles, and we used to drive 5 or 6 miles from other 

 hauling grounds; but when the Americans got the islands tbey soon 

 after shortened all the drives to less than 3 miles. 



From my observations and my inquiries of the natives, under condi- 

 tions which were calculated to elicit only truthful 

 replies, I ascertained that there had been no J. Stanley Brown, p. 18. 

 change save for the better in the methods of driv- 

 ing or the handling of seals; that salt houses had been established at 

 t]\e more distant rookeries; that boats, horses, mules, and wagons had 

 been employed to transport the skins; that by these improvements the 

 length of the drives had been materially lessened, and that the time for 

 taking the quota had been reduced from the Russian killing season of 

 three or four months to about thirty days, thereby causing the mini- 

 mum of disturbance even to the hauling grounds. 



In addition to this the Alaska Commercial Company, as previously 

 stated, had introduced far better facilities, such as 

 boats, horses, mules, and carts, for transporting the chas. Bryant, p, 8. 

 skins, and improved methods of caring for them, 



which not only greatly reduced the labor required of the natives, but 

 which, when aided by their improved physical condition and the in- 

 creased number of the seals, enabled the company to take their full 

 quota in thirty working days in 1S77. 



This alone enormously reduced the molestation of the seals on the 

 hauling grounds, for in the old Russian days, as previously stated, the 

 seals were driven and killed at all times during their presence on the 

 island. 



When I was a boy, before Americans came here, we used to drive 

 from the rookeries at Northeast Point to the vil- 

 lage killing grounds, a distance of 12 miles, and Earp ButeHn,p. 104. 

 from Halfway Point, a distance of 6 miles, and 



from Zapadnie, a distance of 5 miles. After the Americans came the 

 drive from Northeast Point was stopped at once and a salt house was 

 built at Northeast Point and the seals have been killed there ever since 

 within about 2 miles of the hauling grounds. 



In 1874 or 1875 the seals were killed within a mile of the hauling 

 grounds at Zapadnie, and the skins have been taken ever since in boats 

 across the bay to the village salt house. In 187!) a salt house was built 

 at Halfway Point, and since then no seals have ever been driven on St. 

 Paul Island more than 2 mdes. 



In 1879 the Alaska Commercial Company built a salt house about 2 

 miles from Halfway Point, and after that the seals 

 were never driven more than 2 miles. Drives j ao . Eotchooten, p. 131. 

 used to be brought from Zapadnie to the village, 

 a distance of about 5 miles, until, in 1879, the Alaska Commercial 



