146 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The inhabitants subsist principally upon the flesh of fur-seals and sea-lions, with the addition of roots and a 

 little flour. In the summer time, between June and September, halibut and some cod are caught around the shore, 

 and altogether the living of these Aleuts is excellent and even luxurious, compared with that of their neighbors. 

 The station is supplied with provisions and trading-goods from Sitka, the ship arriving annually in June and July. 

 As there is no safe harbor, these vessels must receive and discharge their cargoes under sail. 



In former years, up to 1820 or 1821, those islands were under the control of the Oonalashka office. Tbe 

 manager of St. Paul was, until the year 18 54, also in charge of St. George, visiting the latter island every spring in 

 a bidarkie; and, though these navigators cannot see from one island to the other, their journeys have been usually 

 successful, with the exception of three occasions— twice the small craft missed the island of St. George (going from 

 St. Paul), and pushed on to the coast of the Alaskan peninsula, where they finally secured a landing ; and in the 

 third instance, the bidarrah was lost altogether. 



On the island of St. George there was no bay or entrance, with the exception of a shallow bight near the village 

 (Zapadnie). This settlement contains a wooden chapel erected in honor to St. George, log buildings occupied by 

 the agent of the company and his servants, and a number of barrabaras. * * * The inhabitants are, however, 

 in less comfortable circumstances than those of St. Paul. Of provisions, they have a great abundance of sea lion 

 meat, sea-birds and their eggs. The eggs are obtained by lowering a person over the precipitous cliffs, by means 

 of seal-skin ropes. Many perish in this attempt from the friction of the strands against the sharp edges of the rocks; 

 and occasionally the foxes have been known to gnaw off the ropes on which the hunters were suspended. 



Occasionally shocks of earthquakes* still remind us of the volcanic origin of the Pribylov islands. Very 

 heavy ones occurred repeatedly in April on both islands, when many overhanging cliffs were thrown into the sea. 

 The inhabitants of the Pribylov islands belong to the parish of Oonalashka, the priest of which is obliged to visit 

 them once every two years (to marry, baptize, etc). These islands were not known before the year 178G; mate 

 G. Pribylov, t then in the service of a swan-hunting company, first, in the Russian name, found them, but at the 

 same time he was not the first discoverer, because, as before said (Part I, chap. 1,) on one of them (southwest side 

 of St. Paul) signs, such as a pipe, brass knife-handle, and traces of fire, were found, indicating that people had 

 been there before, but not long, as places were observed where the grass had been burned and scorched. But if 

 we can believe the Aleuts in what they relate, the islands were known to them long before they were visited by 

 the Russians. They knew and called them "Ateek", after having heard about them. 



Eegad -dak-geek, a sou of an Oonimak chief by the name of Ah-kak-nee-kak, was taken out to sea in a bidarkie 

 by a storm, the wind blowing strong from the south. He could not get back to the beach, nor could he make any 

 other lauding, and was obliged to run before the wind three or four days, when he brought up on St. Paul 

 island, north from the land which he had been compelled to leave. Here he remained until autumn, and became 

 acquainted with the hunting of different animals. Elegant weather one day setting in, he saw the peaks of 

 Oonimak. He then resolved to put to sea, and return to receive the thanks of his people there; and, after three 

 or four days of traveling, he arrived at Oonimak, with many otter tails and snouts. \ 



No vegetation on the islands. — The islands were both at first without vegetation, with the exception of 

 St. Paul, where there was a small talneek creeping along on the ground ; and on St. George, if we believe the 

 accounts of the first ones there to see, nothing grew, even grass, except on the places where the carcasses of dead 

 animals rotted. In the course of time both islands were covered with grass, a great part of it being of the sedge 

 kind. On them are two varieties of berries, etc., etc. 



Eaelt status of the colonists. — The Aleuts serving the company here sustained the following relations 

 between themselves and it, to wit : each of them worked without solicitation and at whatever was found, and to 

 which they were directed, or at that which they understood. Payment for their toil was not established by the day 



* These shocks prohably occurred in 1796-'97, when Boga SIov island was raised, in April or May of that year, from the bed of Bering 

 sea, 170 miles directly south of St. George. Such earthquakes were al60 characteristic of those sub-tropical fur-seal islands, Juan 

 Fernandez and Masafuera. — H. W. E. 



tGehrman Pribylov, thediscoveror of the seal-islands, was a native of "old Russia"; his fatherwas one of the surviving sailors of the 

 "St. Peter", which was wrecked, with Bering in command, November 4, 1741, on Bering island. The only reference, which I can tiud 

 1o him, is the vague incidental expressions used here and there, throughout an extended series of lengthy Russian letters published by 

 Techmainov, as illustrative of the condition of aflairs in regard to the Russian American Company. Pribylov was, when cruising, in 

 1783-'86, for the rumored seal-grounds, merely the first mate of the sloop "St. George". The captain and part owner was one M. Zubov, 

 who was a member of a trading association then quite well organized in Alaska, and known as the " Laibedev Lastochin" company. It 

 does not appear that Pribylov took any part in the business of sealing, other than that of remaining in charge of the company's vessels. 

 He died while in discharge of these duties, at Sitka, March, 1790, on his ship, " The Three Saints" (" Tree Sraytoi"). 



Pribylov, himself, called these islands of his discovery, after Zubov ; but the Russians then, and soon, uuanimously indicated the 

 group by its present well deserved title, "OstrovU Pribylom." — H. W. E. 



t Here Veniaminov says that he does feel inclined to believe this story, as the peaks of Oonimak can be seen occasionally from St. 

 Paul. I have no hesitation in Baying that they were never observed by auy mortal eye from the Pribj lov group. The wide expanse of 

 water between these points, and the thick, foggy air of Bering sea, especially so at the season mentioned in this story above, will always 

 make the mountains of Oonimak invisible to the eye from St. Paul island. A mirage is almost an impossibility; it may have been much 

 more probable if the date was a winter one. — H. W. E. 



