142 MANAGEMENT OF THE SEAL ROOKERIES. 



Under the Rus- could iiot of coursG make progress toward civili- 



siau Compauy. 



zation. There were no facilities for transporting 

 skins; they were carried on the backs of the 

 natives, entailing great labor and hardship. 

 Under American "Very soon after the islands came into the pos- 



control. -^ i 



session of the American Government all this was 

 changed. Their underground earthen lodges 

 were replaced by warm, comfortable wooden cot- 

 tages for each family;^ fuel, food, and clothing 

 were furnished them at prices twenty-five per 

 cent above the wholesale price of San Francisco; 

 churches were built and schoolhouses maintained 

 for tlieir benefit, and everything done that would 

 insure their constant advancement in the way 

 of civilization and natural progress. Instead of 

 being mere creatures of the whims of their rulers 

 they were placed on an equal footing with white 

 men and received by law a stipulated sum for 

 each skin taken, so that about forty thousand 

 dollars was amiually divided among the inhab- 

 itants of the two islands. In place of the skin- 

 clad natives living in turf lodges, which I found 

 on arriving on the island in 1869, I left them in 

 1877 as well fed, as well clothed, and as well 



1 See pliotograpli, Vol. II, p. 95, showing Village of St. Paul in 

 1870 and in 1891; and photographs of natives, Vol. II, pp. 8, 70, 

 133. Letter from Chief Manager Furnhelm to the Board of Admin- 

 istration of the Russian American Company, dated July 16, 1863; 

 Vol. I, p. 88. 



