THE GREAT ISLAND OF KADIAK. 123 



north wind is always warmer ! These south winds bring to Oon- 

 ga its foggiest weather, its heaviest rains, and raise such a ground 

 swell in the village harbor that the craft therein are often compelled 

 to go to sea for safety, and it always drives the fishermen from the 

 banks outside. Those cod-banks are best, off the southerly range of 

 the islands, and hence, when a southeaster blows, the schooners are 

 on a most dangerous lee-shore. They seldom ever take the risks 

 of riding out such a gale. Old skippers who have fished for 

 forty years on the Grand Banks and "Georges," for the Gloucester 

 and Boston markets, declare that the fury of the sea and wind is 

 greater off the Shoomagins in a southeaster than anything of the 

 kind experienced on the Atlantic. These wild gales become 

 stronger, loaded with sleet and snow, as winter approaches, so 

 that by the middle or end of November, until next April, all sailing- 

 craft are practically driven from the fishing grounds. 



The same method of catching cod is employed here as practised 

 by our Gloucester men, in only one respect, however : the long, 

 buoyed lines are not set out and regularly under-run, but instead, 

 small boats and dories, with two men in each, are put off from the 

 schooners, and fish with hand-lines, using what is known as "11- 

 inch" and "12-inch" hooks. Halibut, and "squid," or cuttle-fish, 

 make the best bait. A good, smart man, if he is fortunate, will haul 

 up four hundred codfish in a day's steady labor, but this is an ex- 

 traordinary streak of luck. An average of three hundred every fair 

 day is one that gives the highest satisfaction. These fish are taken 

 on board of the schooner, salted, and not touched again until the 

 cargo is broken for re-drying and curing at several points chosen 

 for that purpose in California. At first our people were disposed 

 to hire the natives up here to do this hand-line fishing, and they 

 did so ; but a patient trial has demonstrated the fact that it pays 

 to employ our own men instead, even at greatly advanced wages. 

 The Aleutes are docile, and do exceedingly well in spurts, but they 

 do not like to work in steady, well-sustained periods of any great 

 length at a time. 



Were it not for the intense physical discomfort of the rapidly 

 recurring fog, sleet, and rain-laden gales, Oonga would undoubt- 

 edly be a site well chosen for a neat New England fishing village. 

 Many of those white men now employed up there in the cod-fishery 

 declare that they would bring their wives and children into the 

 country, to permanently settle, if they thought that they could be 



