THE GREAT ALEUTIAN CHAIN. 169 



a number of old women, and younger ones, to and from the moun- 

 tains ; they always return with a burden of what appears to be 

 coarse grass upon their backs, in such huge bundles that the bear- 

 ers are quite hidden from view. These females, while not literally 

 hewers of wood, are really working as hard. They are gathering 

 the only natural resource which is afforded them for fuel When 

 long and tedious journeys along the coast fail to reward a search 

 for drift-logs, which are found here and there in scant number at 

 the best, then the women repair to those spots on the mountain 

 sides where the slender strawberry-like runners of the crowberry* 

 have grown and intergrown into thick masses. These they pull 

 from the earth, as we would gather dried grasses. A large bundle 

 is made for each woman in the party, and then, assisting each other 

 to load up, they stagger down the hillside trails, under these heavy 

 burdens, back to their respective barraboras. This " sheeksa " is 

 then air-dried, or weathered several weeks, so as to get it 

 ready and fit for use in those odd Russian ovens or " peechka " 

 stoves. It is twisted into short wisps, two or three of which at one 

 time are ignited, and thrust as they blaze, into the oven ; then the 

 door of the peechka is closed tightly and promptly. This makes a 

 hot fire for a few moments ; every particle of the heat is absorbed 

 "by the thick, brick walls of the oven, so that, as it radiates slowly, 

 the small apartment within the earthen walls of the barrabora is 

 kept at a tropical temperature, for several hours at a time, without 

 a renewal of this fire. To-day, however, at Oonalashka, and at three 

 or four other central sea-otter villages, the natives are buying cord- 

 wood and coal from the traders. The wood is brought from 

 Kadiak, while the coal comes up as ballast from San Francisco in 

 the traders' vessels. 



Housed and fed in this manner, the entire Aleutian population 

 have been, and are living ; as their children grow up and inherit 

 the parental homes, or branch out, after marrying, to erect barra- 

 boras of their own, they repeat the same methods of their ancestry. 

 In a normal condition the Aleut is a quiet, peaceful parent, affec- 

 tionate but yet not demonstrative ; he is kind to his wife and 

 imposes no real burden upon her which he does not fully share 



* Empetrum nigrum. The fruit is a small black berry very much like 

 that borne upon those hedges of an English privet, which grows in our garden 

 here at home. 



