20 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



affectionately salute, and call the place " Vesolia Mista", or "Jolly Spot" ; the old men telling me, in a low whisper, 

 that "in those good old days they bad plenty of rum". But, when the pressure of competition became great, another 

 village was located at Polaviua, and still another at Zapadnie, until the activity and unscrupulous energy of all these 

 rival settlements well-nigh drove out and eliminated the seals in 1790. Three years later the whole territory of 

 Alaska passed into the hands of the absolute power vested in the Russian-American Company. These islands were 

 in the bill of sale, and early in 1799 the competing traders were turned off neck and heels from them, and the Pribylov 

 group passed under the control of a single man, the iron- willed Baranov. The people on St. Paul were then all drawn 

 together, for economy and warjnth, into a single settlement at Polaviua. Their life in those days must bave been 

 miserable. Tbey were mere slaves, without the slightest redress from any insolence or injury which their masters 

 might see fit, in petulance or brutal orgies, to inflict upon them. Here they lived and died, unnoticed and uncared 

 for, in large barracoons half under ground and dirt roofed, cold, and filthy. Along toward the beginning or end of 

 1825, in order that they might reap the advantage of being located best to load and unload ships, the Polavina 

 settlement was removed to the present village site, as indicated on the map, and the natives have lived there ever 

 siuce. 



On St. George the several scattered villages were abandoned, and consolidated at the existing location some 

 years later, but for a different reason. The labor of bringing the seal-skins over to Garden cove, which is the best 

 and surest landing, was so great, and that of carrying them from the north shore to Zapadnie still greater, that it was 

 decided to place the consolidated settlement at such a point between them, on the north shore, that the least trouble 

 and exertion of conveyance would be necessary. A better place, geographically, for the business of gathering the 

 skins and salting them down at St. George cannot be found on the island, but a poorer place for a landing it is 

 difficult to pick out, though in this respect there is not much choice outside of Gardeu cove. 



Contrast in the condition of the inhabitants under Russian and American rule. — Up to 

 the time of the transfer of the territory and leasing of the islands to the Alaska Commercial Company, in August, 

 1870, these native inhabitants all lived in huts or sod-walled and dirt-roofed houses, called " barrabkies," partly 

 under ground. Most of these huts were damp, dark, and exceedingly filthy : it seemed to be the policy of the 

 short-sighted Russian management to keep them so, and to treat the natives not near so well as they treated the few 

 hogs and dogs which they brought up there for food and for company. The use of seal-fat for fuel, caused the 

 deposit upon everything within doors of a thick coat of greasy, black soot, strongly impregnated with a damp, 

 moldy, and indescribably offensive odor. They found along the north shore of St. Paul and at Northeast point, 

 occasional scattered pieces of drift-wood, which they used, carefully soaked anew in water if it had dried out, split 

 into little fragments, and, trussing the blubber with it when making their fires, the combination gave rise to a 

 roaring, spluttering blaze. If this drift-wood failed them at any time when winter came round, they were obliged 

 to huddle together beneath skins in their cold huts, and live or die, as the case might be. But the situation to-day 

 has changed marvelously. We see here now at St. Paul, and on St. George, in the place of the squalid, filthy 

 habitations of the immediate past, two villages neat, warm, and conteuted. Each family lives in a snug frame- 

 dwelling; every house is lined with tarred paper, painted, furnished with a stove, with out-houses, etc., complete; 

 streets laid out, and the foundations of these habitations regularly plotted thereon. There is a large church at St. 

 Panl, and a less pretentious but very creditable structure of the same character, on St. George; a hospital on St. 

 Paul, with a full and complete stock of drugs, and skilled physicians on both islands to take care of the people, 

 free of cost. There is a school-house on each island, in which teachers are also paid by the company eight months 

 in the year, to instruct the youth, while the Russian Church is sustained entirely by the pious contributions of the 

 natives themselves' on these two islands, and sustained well by each other. There are I families, or 80 houses, on 

 St. Paul, in the village, with 20 or 24 such houses to as many families at St. George, and 8 other structures. The 

 large ware-houses and salt-sheds of the Alaska Commercial Company, built by skillful mechanics, as have been the 

 dwellings just referred to, are also neatly painted; and, taken in combination with the other features, constitute a 

 picture fully equal to the average presentation of any one of our small eastern towns. There is no misery, no 

 downcast, dejected, suffering humanity here to-day. These Aleuts, who enjoy as the price of their good behaviour, 

 the sole right to take and skin seals for the company, to the exclusion of all other people, are known to and by 

 their less fortunate neighbors elsewhere in Alaska as the " Bogatskie Aloutov ", or the " rich Aleuts". The example 

 of the agents of the Alaska Commercial Company, on both islands, from the beginning of its lease, and the course 

 of the treasury agents* during the last four or five years, have been silent but powerful promoters of the welfare 

 ot these people. They have maintained perfect order: they have directed neatness, and cleanliness, and stimulated 

 industry, such as those natives had never before dreamed of. 



Number and condition of the islanders in 1880.— The population of St. Paul is, at the present writing, 

 298. Of these, 11 are whites (13 males and 1 female), 128 male Aleutians, and 156 females. On St. George we 

 have 92 souls: 4 white males, 35 male Aleutians, and 53 females, a total population on these islands of 390. This 

 is an increase of between 30 and 40 people since 1873. Prior to 1S73, they had neither much increased nor 

 diminished for 50 years, but would have fallen off rapidly (for the births were never equal to the deaths) had not 



* Messrs. Morton, Falconer, Otis, Moulton, Scribner, and Beaman. 



