FUR SEALS AND OTHER LIFE, PRIBILOF ISLANDS, I914. 93 



industries more or less direct!}- concerned are treated elsewhere. Under the following 

 heads will be considered particularly the needed improvements and changes of a more or 

 less mechanical nature. 



REFORMS CONTEMPLATED BY LESSEES. 



The desirability of making certain of the improvements recommended in the pres- 

 ent report has been repeatedly pointed out in past years, even before the taking over 

 of the sealing business by the Government. Various improvements were contemplated 

 by the later lessees toward the close of their occupation, but the uncertainty of the 

 renewal of the lease prevented active steps for their adoption. Since the abandonment 

 of the system of leasing, little progress has been made in improving the plant or in 

 instituting useful changes. This has been due partly to the death or serious illness of 

 valuable members of the island force and partly to the results of the agitations which 

 have beset the general administration of affairs. The prevailing impression that the 

 seal herd was reduced to very small and unimportant proportions also contributed to 

 inaction. 



BETTER METHODS OF TRANSPORTATION NEEDED. 



One of the most important of the improvements needed is the installation of better 

 facilities for transportation. These may be considered under two heads: (i) Facilities 

 for traveling and moving supplies on the islands, and (2) the transportation from the 

 United States to the islands of the necessary supplies and the moving of the annual 

 catch of seal and fox skins to market. 



Roads and trails. — A pressing need is the establishment of better facilities for reach- 

 ing Northeast Point from the village. It is believed that the construction of a tramway 

 to be traversed by a small gas engine would prove most satisfactory. It would be about 

 12 miles in length and would connect some of the most important hauling grounds with 

 the village, where the only feasible landing places are located. A spur road about 4 miles 

 long would reach Zapadni and would thus allow prompt access to all the important parts 

 of the island. In the event of a raid on the rookeries, prompt action would be of the 

 highest importance, while the moral effect inspired by a state of preparedness might go 

 far in preventing such an occurrence. A wagon road, much of which is deep in sand, 

 now connects the extremities of the island, but under present conditions travel by mule 

 team is scarcely faster than progress on foot. In the days of active commercial sealing 

 nearly one-third of the skins from St. Paul Island were taken at Northeast Point, and 

 as the facilities for landing there are very poor, the importance of a ready means of 

 hauling the skins to the village, when sealing is resumed, is apparent. The installation 

 of a tram road would also provide for the prompt delivery of the sealing force at the scene 

 of their labors whenever a killing was planned and the skins secured could be promptly 

 transported to the main salt house and there cared for more economically than at North- 

 east Point. This road would also serve as an important aid in properly distributing 

 seal meat intended for the foxes or for other purposes. 



Whether or not a tram road to Northeast Point is installed, the construction of 

 a number of shorter roads on both islands is important. One from the village of St. Paul 

 to Reef Rookery is highly desirable, as it would permit killing near the rookery and 

 would do away with the killing ground now situated at the edge of the village. Foot 



