94 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



great many "soft" spots will be fouud on the outer edges of the skins 

 from which the fur pulls out, and thus destroys the par value of those 

 skins. 

 Touching this subject in 1874, I said in relation to the work: 



The skins are takeu from the field' to the salt house, where they are laid out, after 

 being again carefully examined, one upon another, " hair to fat," like so many sheets 

 of paper, with salt profusely spread ni)on the dishy sides as they are piled up in the 

 "kenches" or bins.'- The salt house is a large barn-like frame structure, so built as 

 to afford one-third of its width in the center, from end, to end clear and open as a pas- 

 sageway : while on each side are rows of stanchions, with sliding planks, which are 

 taken down and put up in the form of deep bins or boxes — "kenches," the sealers 

 call them. As the pile of skins is laid at the bottom of an empty "kencli,"' and salt 

 thrown in on the outer edges, these planks are also put in place, so that the salt may 

 be kept intact until the bin is tilled as high up as a man can toss the skins. After 

 lying two or three weeks in this style, they become "pickled," and they are suited 

 then at anytime to be taken up antl rolled into bundles of two skins to the package, 

 with the hairy side out, tightly corded, ready for shipment from the islands. 



The bundled skins are carried from the salt houses to the baidar, when the order for 

 shipment is given, and pitched into that lighter one by one, to bo rapidly stowed : 700 

 to 1,200 bundles making the average single load. Then, when alongside the steamer, 

 they are again tossed up and on to her deck, from whence they are stowed again in 

 the hold. 



DESCRIPTION OF KILLING GROUND AT ST. PAUL VILLAGE. 



The killing ground of St. Paul is a bottomless sand flat, only a few feet 

 above high water, 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 : and, a most singular and 

 striking characteristic of the island of St. Paul is the fact that this 

 immense slaughtering field, upon which 55,000 to 70,000 fresh carcasses 



' Under the old order of affairs, long ])rior to the present management, tlie skins were 

 packed up and carried on the backs of the boys and girls, women and old men, to 

 the drying houses and drying frames. When I first arrived, season of 1872, a slight 

 variation was made in this respect by breaking a small Silierian bull into harness 

 and hitching it to a bob cart in which the pelts were hauled. Before the cart was 

 adjusted, however, and the "buik" taught to pull, it was led out to the killing 

 grounds by a ring in its nose, and literally covered with the green seal hides, which 

 were thus packed to the kenches. The natives were delighted with even this partial 

 assistance, but now they have no further concern about it at all, for several mules 

 and carts render prompt and ample service. They were introduced here first in 1874. 

 The Russian American Company, and also the Alaska Commercial Company have 

 brought up three or four horses to St. Paul : but they have been unfortunate in losing 

 them all soon after landing: the voyage and the climate combined, being inimical to 

 equine health. But the mules of the present order of affairs, have been successful in 

 their transportation to and residence on the Pribilov Islands. One of the first of 

 these horses just referred to, perhaps did not have a fair chance for its life. It was 

 saddled one morning and several camp kettles, coft'ee jiots, etc., slung on the crupper 

 for the use of the Russian agent, who was going up to Northeast Point for a week or 

 ten days' visit. He got into the saddle, and while en route, near Polaviua, a kettle 

 or pot broke loose behind. The alarmed horse kicked its rider promptly off, and dis- 

 appeared on a full run in the fog, going toward the bogs of Kamminista, where its 

 lifeless and fox-gnawed body was found several days afterwards. 



-The practice of curing in early times was (juite different from this rapid and 

 effective process of salting. The skins were then all house, or air dried, pegged out 

 when ' ' green " upon the ground, or else stretched upon a wooden trellis or franu\ which 

 stood like a rude fence adjacent to the killing grounds. It was the accumulation of 

 such air-dried skins from the Pribilov Islands at Sitka which rotted so in 1803 that 

 "750,000 of them were cut up or thrown into the sea," and so destroyed. Had 

 they been treated as they now are, such a calamity and hideous waste could not have 

 occurred. The method of air drying which the old settlers employed is well por- 

 trayed by the practice of the natives now, who treat a few hundred sea-lions' skins 

 to the process every fall, preparing them thus for shipment to Unalashka, where 

 they are used by brother Aleuts in covering their bidarkies or kyacks. The natives, 

 in speaking to me of this matter, said that wJieueverthe weather was rough and the 

 wind blowing hard, these air-dried sealskins, as they were tossed from the bidarrah 

 to the ship's deck, numbers of them would frequently turn in the wind and fly clean 

 over the A'essel into the water beyond, where they were lost. 



