352 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



and do, spread this year a whole season's killing out over the same 

 spot of the field previously covered with such fresh carcasses three 

 summers ago ; by alternating with the seasons thus, the natives are 

 enabled to annually slaughter all of the " holluschickie " on a rela- 

 tively small area, close by the salt-houses and the village, as I have 

 indicated on my map of St. Paul. 



The St. Paul village site is located wholly on the northern slope 

 of the village hill, where it drops from its greatest elevation, at the 

 flagstaff of one hundred and twenty-five feet, gently down to those 

 sandy killing-flats below and between it and the main body of the 

 island. The houses are all placed facing north at regular inter- 

 vals along the terraced streets, which run southeast and northwest. 

 There are seventy -four or eighty native houses, ten large and 

 smaller buildings of the company, a Treasury agent's residence, 

 a church, cemetery crosses, and a school building which are all 

 standing here in coats of pure white paint. No offal or decaying 

 refuse of any kind is allowed to rest around the dwellings or lie 

 in the streets. It required much determined effort on the part of 

 the whites to effect this sanitary reform ; but now most of the na- 

 tives take equal pride in keeping their surroundings clean and un- 

 polluted. The killing-ground of St. Paul is a bottomless sand-flat 

 only a few feet above high water, and which unites the village hill 

 and the reef with the island itself. It is not a stone's throw from 

 the heart of the settlement ; in fact, it is right in town, not even 

 suburban. 



The site of the St. George settlement is more exposed and bleak 

 than is the one we have just referred to on St. Paul. It is planted 

 directly on a rounded summit of one of the first low hills that 

 rise from the sea on the north shore. Indeed, it is the only hill 

 that does slope directly and gently to the salt water on the island. 

 Here are twenty-four to thirty native cottages, laid with their doors 

 facing the opposite sides of a short street between, running also 

 east and west, as at St. Paul. There, however, each house looks 

 down upon the rear of its neighbor in front and below here the 

 houses face each other on the top of the hill. The Treasury agent's 

 quarters, the company's six or seven buildings, the school-house, and 

 the church, are all neatly painted : therefore this settlement, by its 

 prominent position, shows from the sea to a much better advantage 

 than the larger one of St. Paul does. The same municipal sanitary 

 regulations are enforced here. Those who may visit the St. George 



