184 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



for native food has been prohibited now for seventeen years. A fine 

 of 100 roubles is exacted in the case of each female accidentally killed, 

 with other such similar precautions. The methods taken to prevent 

 the disturbance of seals upon the rookeries by smoke have already 

 been alluded to. 



(F.) — Native Interests on the Islands. 



723. The condition of the Aleuts of the Pribyloft" Islands has undoubt- 

 edly been much improved by their connection with the sealing industry, 

 but it is difficult to see on what grounds the special advantages of a 

 material kind afforded to these particular people as distinguished from 

 others of the same race, and partly at the expense of interference with 

 the rights of hunting of those inhabiting the Aleutian Islands, can be 

 advanced as a valid argument in favour of the perpetuation of a com- 

 mercial monopoly of fur-sealing. The Aleuts on the Pribyloft" Islands 

 are not natives of these islands in any true sense, but were brought 

 thither by the Eussians for their own convenience, and to afford the 

 labour necessary for sealing. The actual circumstances of their exist- 

 ence on the islands are unfavourable to their vitality, as evidenced by 

 the fact that the death rate is higher than the birth rate, so that if 

 additions had not been made from time to time from the Aleutian 

 Islands, in conformity with the requirements of the lessees, the number 

 now remaining would be insignificant. These people are, moreover, 

 now in the majority of cases half-breeds, with often a notable pre- 

 ponderance of "white blood." As it is, the entire population of the 

 Pribyloft' Islands, according to the Census of 1890, amounts to but 303 

 persons, and therefore the question of their disi)osition and maintenance 

 cannot be regarded as a very embari-assing one, or one which should be 

 allowed to enter seriously into discussions as to the means appropriate 

 for the i>reservation of the fur-seal, or into the important questions 

 connected therewith. 



724. It is also clear that the so-called natives of the islands, though 

 under ordinary circumstances provided for in certain respects by the 

 lessees according to legal arrangement, have in past times not always 

 been among the fii'st objects of their solicitude. Many allegations as 

 to the ill-treatment of the natives are to be found in the Congressional 

 Eeports on the Alaska Commercial Company and on the Fur-seal Fish- 

 eries of Alaska, while a general indictment of the treatment of the 

 natives by the Company by A. P. Swineford, Governor of Alaska, is 

 made so lately as in his Keport for the year 1887.* 



725. A single instance, to which it happened that our attention was 

 drawn, may be cited for the purpose of showing that the natives, even 

 in recent years, received no more than strictly "commercial" treat- 

 ment. This refers to the allowance of coal made to them. The fuel 

 to be obtained on the islands is confined to small quantities of drift- 

 wood, supplemented by seal blubber, or oil from seals or sea-lions, and 

 naturally proves insufficient for the requirements of a long aiid inclem- 

 ent winter. It was therefore stipulated in the original lease that 

 sixty cords of fire-wood should be furnished annually for the natives 

 on the two islands. For this, 00 tons of coal was afterwards substi- 

 tuted, and the annual allowance for St. Paul Island was fixed at 



125 40 tons. The supply thus furnished, being at the rate of about 

 1 ton i)er family each year, was naturally, and even with such 



* Page 31, et seq. 



