\\ ONDERFUL SEAL ISLANDS. 245 



The company, however, has gone far beyond this exaction of the 

 Government ; it has added an inexpressible boon of comfort, in the 

 formation of those dwellings now occupied by the natives, which was 

 not expressed nor thought of at the time of the granting of the 

 lease. An enlightened business-policy suggested to the company 

 that it would be much better for the natives, and much better for 

 company too, if these people were taken out of their filthy, un- 

 wholesome hovels, put into habitable dwellings, and taught to live 

 cleanly, for the simple reason that by so doing the natives, living in 

 this improved condition, would be able physically and mentally, 

 every season when the sealing work began, to come out from their 

 long inanition and go to work at once with vigor and energetic per- 

 sistency. The sequel has proved the wisdom of the company. 



Before this action on their part, it was physically impossible for 

 the inhabitants of St. Paul or St. George Islands to take the lawful 

 quota of one hundred thousand seal-skins annually in less than 

 three or four working months. They take them in less than thirty 

 working days now with the same number of men. What is the 

 gain ? Simply this, and it is everything : the fur-seal skin, from the 

 14th of June, when it first arrives, as a rule, up to the 1st of Au- 

 gust, is in prime condition ; from that latter date until the middle of 

 October it is rapidly deteriorating, to slowly appreciate again in 

 value as it sheds and renews its coat ; so much so that it is prac- 

 tically worthless in the markets of the world. Hence, the catch 

 taken by the Alaska Commercial Company every year is a prime one, 

 first to last there are no low-grade "stagey" skins in it ; but un- 

 der the old regimen, three-fourths of the skins were taken in 

 August, in September and even in October, and were not worth 

 their transportation to London. Comment on this is unnecessary ; 

 it is the contrast made between a prescient business-policy, and one 

 that was as shiftless and improvident as language can well devise.* 



* Living as the Seal-islanders do, and doing what they do, the seal's life is 

 naturally their great study and objective point. It nourishes and sustains 

 them. Without it they say they could not live, and they tell the truth. Hence, 

 their attention to the few simple requirements of the law, so wise in its provi- 

 sions, is not forced or constrained, but is continuous. Self-interest in this re- 

 spect appeals to them keenly and eloquently. They know everything that is 

 done and everything that is said by anybody and by everybody in their little 

 community. Every seal-drive that is made, and every skin that is taken, is 

 recorded and accounted for by them to their chiefs and their church, when 



